Ramblings on Librarianship, Technology, and Academia

I know a lot of my students hate using their university accounts and want to use their personal accounts, but I'm agin it: I think that the legal issue of identity and online courses is important (i.e. the university email account is issued to actual students, and we're told not to accept grade inquiries etc. from other emamil addresses). I also think that the account names on those personal accounts are a big hassle (sure made up names are fun dudes, but do you really want to reveal your sexual fantasies to your English professor). The accountability and privacy issues of the public service accounts are problematic. My university doesn't send out any hard copy info anymore, so email is the official mode of communication, and while students bitched so much that i gather they finally let students forward stuff if they wish, I'm not so sure NOT having any university account is a good thing.

Of course it would help if our univesity email system were better, sigh....