I read the article on Nov. 8 about professors being able to monitor students' Blackboard use ("Profs monitor student Blackboard use"). Why on earth has the feature been included in the Blackboard software? I could see the educational value of looking at general statistics, such as how many students accessed Blackboard, or a general chart of when different documents are accessed. But for professors to have information as to exactly who is looking at what and when? What precedent or need exists for professors to get specific information about which students are reading what and when?
Students at Dartmouth are college students -- we should be given 1) the responsibility to do our work without having professors checking up on when and what we are reading, and 2) the privacy to do readings or homework without suspicions that someone is monitoring them. Professors don't have access to students' library accounts, e-mail, or icalendars -- why are they being given access to students' Blackboard records? Blackboard is a useful feature to connect students, classwork and professors -- but let's not get carried away with adding in new software features without considering whether or not they contribute to the specific goals of the College.
Giving professors specific information about which students are reading what and when is outside the realm of information necessary for a professor to provide quality education -- specific student-by- student monitoring should be removed from Blackboard immediately.
If professors are interested in whether students in general are reading the course materials, then an anonymous statistical overview could be quite helpful. Aside from that, we're college students: Let us have the responsibility to keep track of our own work and the privacy to know that there will not be the opportunity for professors to nitpick about when, whether, and how we do our homework.
