technologic

i just got out of my Art History class and i i noticed something very interesting: a guy taking his notes on his laptop. now, in college this isn't such a strange citing but what i noticed was that because he was doing his note-taking on his computer he was able to supplement them with the exact pictures that the teacher was showing us by looking them up on the internet and copy and pasting them into his note document. this amazing feat made me think of two things: first, i should ask this kid to email me a copy of his notes and second, that technology has really taken over the educational system.
i've found personally that this can sometimes cause issues. sometimes there really is the need for good ole', organic, printed out paper. the first battle i faced in the technological advancement of the my educational system was in high school. my high school used something called Powerschool which was a website where your parents (or in my case, me, because my parents didn't keep track of my academics) could see the exact breakdown of your grades and an up to minute update on your attendance record. this little beauty was the cause of many of my friends' groundings and cell phone confiscations. i didn't mind so much that they allowed parents to be informed about how their children were doing, probably because my parents didn't use it and so it didn't affect me. what really bothered me was when i wanted to know what my grades were in a class and i asked the teacher. their response was always "check it online". how annoying! i just wanted to know right this minute what my freakin' grade was! is that such a hassle for you to pull it up on your computer? ok, so maybe it isn't that big of a deal, but i didn't like it.
my second major battle with the new, technological education system was college application season (something i am more likely than not going to be facing again quite soon). nearly all college applications are done online and the worst college website i've ever been on is CSUmentor. CSUmentor is the site used to apply to all 23 campuses of the CSU system, something commonly done in California. to give you a brief idea of how complicated the site is to navigate my school's college counselor held 4 CSUmento Tutorial Sessions after school because that many kids just could not figure it out. i was applying to only 2 of them and i even was tempted to give up.
i now attend California College of the Arts which has officially "gone paperless". this means that any and all paperwork is emailed to you or presented in PDF form. there are no printed notifications in your mail. the course catalog is even on PDF form. now, i'm all for not wasting out precious resources but paper can and is easily recycled and made from recycled fibers, most of which are not trees and trees are also a renewable source. what does it take for a kid to get a physical copy of the course catalog for crying out loud? a lot more than you'd think.
i'm sure there are a large number of you kids out there who appreciate online AP Art submissions, blogging HW assignments, and strictly email submissions of papers, but i on the other hand miss the classic methods of educational systems where i printed out my paper and handed it to the teacher. i suppose i like knowing that i physically handed that assignment to the teacher so there is zero chance that it can get lost in cyber space and my teacher can try to twist it into some story that will earn me an incomplete.