It's hard to do good work when the tools you have make it hard to do good work.

Two cases in point:

1. Blackboard 9
2. "SkyNet," the wi-fi connection on my campus.

As for Blackboard, the new version of the software is now so kludgy, so bloated, so hard to navigate, that after one semester using it, I'm seriously considering not doing any more with online stuff until they find a better solution.  It's really atrocious.  I know that our support people are committed to helping us learn all that there is to know, etc., but in 2011 there really isn't any excuse for developing, shipping, or using an e-learning platform that doesn't just work.  Mark Hurst has a lot to say about this sort of thing...I'm not sure that he's weighed in on Blackboard, but I can guess what he would say.  I don't have time to spend futzing around with settings and modules and the teeth-gritting work of figuring out what a menu means or does.

SkyNet, the new ultra-secure campus wireless network, is so secure that I can't connect to it, and apparently neither can anyone else.  The Powers That Provide the Intarwebs to us have sent around detailed instructions on logging in--but those instructions tell us nothing of the double-secret settings and pixie dust and magic incantations we need to employ in order to make the login even possible.  I need to spend time at work in the library--I really do.  But I don't want to go without wi-fi for things like, I don't know, using the library catalog, etc.  Apparently I can take the computer by the help desk and wait for them to mess around with it.  But why?  Is it not possible for them to set up a network that is actually accessible by the people who actually do the work around campus?