In Praise of Barely Sufficient Tools

Students in every discipline in college are expected to absorb not only core concepts, but a range of demanding and often arcane applications. Journalists learn CMS; artists are expected to understand the web and Dreamweaver; and musicians must understand online marketing. In a way, this is a step forward. There is no reason why students shouldn’t also have a diverse set of skills. It adds to their marketability and problem-solving abilities. The problem is that teaching these skills is just not suitable for the classroom environment where an understanding of theory and core topics is also to be expected. Time is taken away from central themes, and put instead towards tools that are difficult to learn in a short period of time.

In some cases, using different environments and tools serves a purpose. Computer science majors clearly need to encounter software development tools at the same time they are learning basic data structures. But in the race to be more geared toward the marketplace and be technologically-savvy, I think we've taken our eye off the goal of teaching: to help students learn.

Therefore, I’m in favor of what Agile developers call “barely sufficient” tools: those with the least amount of complexity possible to get the job done. What is more appropriate are easily understood software tools such as Blackboard, wireframing software (Visio & Omnigraffle), and collaborative tools such as Basecamp. Even the most simple aids such index cards and whiteboards are indispensable and hard to beat. They take absolutely no preparation or special training, and can be used in multifarious ways in group exercises. Leave the complex tools to the skills courses, where they can have more time devoted to them, or for majors where these tools are their primary focus.