LY #54 Tech whines, Spelling whines

So I took off and didn't visit my online classes for over 24 hours!

This is because I don't like the tablet interface.  I took my Google Nexus with me to Portland but the Blackboard interface is cumbersome and tiring.  I bought a year's worth for $1.99 but don't think I'll use it again for schoolwork.  I was not able to post an announcement to my classes because I couldn't figure out how to do it.  When I hit the "announcements" button it showed me the announcements from the BB administrator herself rather than showing me the announcements for a particular class.

Anyway, the class did not fall apart in my "absence."  When I got home this afternoon I responded to the most recent "primary" posts.  Each week, students are required to post one thoughtful text-responsive observation of communication behaviors.  They also need to respond to one other student's primary post as well as having a five turn conversation with that student or anyone else.  It makes for a lot of reading for me but I find that the conversational requirement actually gets the students interacting with each other more.

I wish, however, that they would spell-check.  Blackboard doesn't seem to do that automatically anymore -- one needs to hit the spell button to get the appropriate red underlining.  Sadly, this leads students to allow many uncorrected spelling errors.   I don't grade on either spelling or grammar but that doesn't mean I don't see it.  When people mix up there, their, and they're or two, to, and too, their action annoys me.  Then there are the folks who just type crazy!  Ack!

Now, the poor spelling and grammar doesn't indicate poor thinking.  Sometimes the posts with the terrible spelling are thoughtful and contain detailed observations of the world.  And sometimes good writers can make the dumbest statements.  Here is one of the ideas that bugged me last week. They read the chapter on nonverbal communications.  In their postings, some of my students wrote about certain situations having "a lot of nonverbal communication."  As though there are situations in which people are gathered together that do not have "a lot of nonverbal communication."  Nonverbal communication is everywhere all the time if people can see, taste, touch, smell, or hear each other.  What do these folks not get about the idea that all behavior communicates?  It's not just select behaviors that have messages.  ALL BEHAVIORS!!!  ALL!!!

Whew.  I'm glad I got that off my chest.

(See the nonverbal within the verbal there?)