OPINION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
5A WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2008
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Clicker system passes students; fails in its basic function
Despite classroom efficency, students' test grades too important to be risked by uncertain system
The adage, "If you play with fire, you're gonna get burned" seems to have recently struck the CPS Clicker system at Budig Hall. Last week, lecturer Nancy Holcroft was forced to assign 100 percent grades to every student taking a test in her Biology 100 class after the clicker system being used to administer the test failed to record the answers students were sending in. In this case it appears a problem arose with the lecturer's computer, though neither the company nor the University has identified a specific cause, eight school days after the incident.
Susan M. Zvacek, director of Instructional Development & Support, said that the clicker system is usually very reliable and her department had never before run into a problem such as last Monday's. Although the system is mainly used for small quizzes, attendance or class interaction, IDS does not recommend using the system for "high-stakes testing situations." It appears technology will continue
to be integrated even more tightly into the class experience, but this raises a question: Is this integration necessarily positive or reliable?
eInstruction president Steve Kaye visited the campus Tuesday, meeting with professors and IT staff and finally assembling a company task force to investigate the problem. He assured that the University would be updated within 24 to 48 hours, though he offered no specific details as to the cause of the problem.
The greatest concern that has emerged is that the clicker system is too complex to be technically supported on campus, forcing the University to rely on a third-party company. It is positive that the company has taken steps to resolve these problems and communicated with University officials.
These good intentions still have not moved the University any closer to resolving the issue, and if professors are going to rely on this system to administer tests or other
high-stakes usages, more high-level technical support needs to be available on campus.
Technology like the CPS clicker system provides some obvious benefits over traditional class interaction and test making methods, especially in large classes. It facilitates direct anonymous response to questions a professor might want to ask, and allows this information to be displayed instantly.
But convenience aside, the real question appears to be whether these platforms are ready for a test-taking environment, where time and grades are critical. Judging by the information available in researching the clicker system, it is not — at least in it's current form.
Scantron surely has it's share of issues as well, but the real issue is that as technology allows more advanced functions, it becomes more complex and therefore less reliable. Malfunctions with student or teacher hardware could cause a delay, forcing a reschedule or even a
loss of all information, as happened last week.
Kaye said his company does thorough quality assurance testing on all its products and that a combination of unforeseen circumstances had converged to cause this problem. There are hundreds of different types of computers in use today, thousands of peripherals, countless configuration options and two major operating systems with five or more versions in use and all of this could cause problems. Basically, the clicker system has to be more complex in order to do what it does best and this is where unreliability comes from.
Currently then, the clicker system is thus inappropriate for testing situations. This is not to say that one day in the future this will not be possible. It will simply require more robust measures to address the complexity of the technology. According to Zaveck and Kaye, new training measures and software changes will be integrated to improve reliability.
The clicker system relies on complex technologies to offer what it does, meaning that in order for someone to fix it he or she will need a technical understanding of the system. Kaye said that el instruction provides a comprehensive training program, but it mainly consists of how to setup a class's roster or connect the equipment. As this circumstance has indicated, the clicker system is far more complex than this. When being used for testing, it is important it have a very high reliability rate. The system is complex and no one is available on campus that can provide high-level support.
If it's the University's goal to use the clickers for such important tasks, on-campus support and increased robustness in the clcker software would be required.
Alex Doherty for the Editorial Board
COMMENTARY
Consumer culture: so easy a caveman can do it
I awaken. I open a new stick of deodorant. The top of the deodorant stick reads, "Go all in!"
I'm sorry, but the last place I look for advice is from my deodorant, especially since it is applied to underarms, the butt crack or the torso.
It saddens me that people forge their lifestyles from phrases like this one that are created by an advertisers. It is almost to the liking of taking advice from a cracked-out bum.
"You don't need no school, all you need is some rocks and some porn. You wanna buy some porn? It'll make you famous."
Usually wisdom found in power words or phrases — put together by advertising teams or cracked out bums
really isn't all that great of advice.
If it were advice that actually made sense, I probably would take it.
If the top of my deodorant read,
"You won't stink!" I would be like
"Wow, that is true. Thank you, deodorant stick."
What am I supposed to go all in on anyway? What if going all in led to my untimely death? I'd be angry, yet no one ever know.
How sad.
I've grown weary watching my peers create mantras inspired by an advertisement's catch phrase.
Yes, we all are susceptible to advertising. There are signs everywhere telling us what to wear, drink, eat, smell like, look like, taste like and feel like. I've seen it all.
There's a sign for every product. I once saw a coupon for douches. I almost bought them but then remembered that I don't have a vagina.
We don't think to be careful not to center our lives on something that has a main goal of taking our money. If taking it to the extreme is what a group of people wants, for it. I can only pray they don't make such a decision based off a Mountain Dew commercial.
I implore my peers to research culture, read a damn book (gasp). Don't buy your lifestyle. Find it the way people did before our generation through learning.
Understanding your belief systems ultimately forces you to reevaluate them.
If consumer culture created your belief system, the only thing that will be revised are the products that clutter your home.
I'm going to start taking my deodorant's advice and go all in.
Now where's that cracked out
bum? Poppa needs some porn.
Stewart is a Wichita junior in journalism.
Max Rinkel
COMMENTARY
Every dog has its day, even if media don't recognize it
You really blew it this time, world-wide media. What you did (or didn't do) is deplorable.
Shame on you, Fox News.
Pathetic.Current.tv.
Not even an inch of print. The Economist? None of these "respected" media giants ran with the most inspiring news story of our generation. This particular story symbolized a defiant victory for the average American, a triumphant fist in the air for our blue-collar, beer-swilling country.
I'm referring to the Uno the
Beagle's cataclysmic Best-Of-
Show performance at this year's
Westminster Dog Show, of course.
Although the Cubs' Series drought often is exemplified as one of the longest-lasting losing streaks of our era, a beagle hadn't won the nation's top dog show in more than 130 years.
Sure, there's been some serious press devoted to the story already, but I chalk that up to the hegemonic power of the American Kennel Club.
The last time a beagle won, you couldn't get on the phone to tell your friends because the phone wasn't invented yet. The President? Ulysses S. Grant. The favored mode of transportation? Horse.
Imagine if the Chicago Cubs won the World Series this year. The stack of the press clippings would outweigh an average Leon Uris novel.
I'd like to take a moment to lambast the media outlets that haven't covered this wonderful story with enough scope, perspective or intelligence.
The skeletal glare of the poodles, both Toy and Standard breeds, judgmentally traced Uno's steps.
Also, I know this nation of corporate-merger housewives and Miley Cyrus-delifying adolescent girls crave their Britney fixes, and I'll even grant that.
When Uno trotted onto that Astroturf, innumerable odds stood between him and this great honor.
However, none of this mattered to Uno, who flippantly shed the shackles of beagledom.
Also, he bayed at the judge, a clear shoutout to his like-minded beagle homies across our nation.
But America witnessed the birth of a great hero that can lead us into our next golden age, a hero that can relate with the masses. He can take
I realize there's a war on, and due journalistic diligence should be pointed in that direction.
That's fine with me.
sprawling leaps at catered steaks one moment and win a giant purple ribbon the next.
Is there anything this dog can't do? No.
The tide of the future relies on this brown-headed pooch, who, without any need for argument, is the greatest single life form to ever come out of Missouri.
Uno received a standing ovation at Madison Square Garden, something that hasn't happened much since Willis Reed reed hung 'em up.
How do I know that?
This demonstration of arena-wide approval exhibits the magnetism this hound has. Charisma — you can't just wave a doggie biscuit over a wet nose and get charisma.
lionize this canine to an extent where we can finally replace the word "lionize" with a superior dog equivalent. "Uno-ize" or creation of the verb "to beagle" are my suggestions.
You've probably seen Uno while scanning through most mainstream newspapers, broad-interest magazines and watching the last 10 minutes of your local news.
In the future, when I see a hero do something great, I want it to be covered in every conceivable fashion. Until the future comes where we all will have ViTo-like newspapers that filter out the stuff we don't want to read (i.e. any story about Bono), we must rely on the media stream to cover the important issues.
I would call this Uno business the quintessential "important" issue.
A hound dog, a veritable everyman, came to New York City and clobbered the competition.
That's not enough. We need to
Imagine if your dad won the Masters. That's what this is like.
Plus, he's way cooler than Barbaro.
Goble is a Mission Hills senior in English and economics.
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Kudos to KU Information Technology for not updating its Web
--site about the lack of printing or wireless connection in Anschutz and having to rely on the PA system to announce it.
Once again, KU's IT department is worthless.
--single day?
--single day?
Badgers will devour us all.
I personally know some engineers who would look smokin' hot in a wet T-shirt.
--single day?
Nader will rule over all! Be prepared!
--single day?
I'm really sad they removed "random play" from Facebook's "interested in" section.
--single day?
After two years of hating KU e-mail, this Google thing is getting me pretty excited.
--single day?
--single day?
I'm tired of "love."From now on, I'm taking advantage of my boyfriends.
The only people who need spots on campus are professors, and they don't even get to park by their buildings.
--single day?
Is anybody else out there really tired of seeing those Vera Bradley bags on campus every single day?
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Free for All, I haven't been in you for days now. I just don't know what to say about all of
Jim Marchiony says there isn't a problem with parking, yet the parking department gets calls complaining about parking every day. Of course Jim doesn't have a problem with parking. There's always a spot for his
Mercedes.
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If you think Nader is the best candidate,you are fucking insane
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Members of the Kansan Editorial Board are Alex Doherty, Bryan Dykman, Matt Erickson, Kelsey Hayes, Lauren Keith, Darla Slipe, Dianne Smith, Ian Stanford and Zach White.