Reasons NOT to teach composition online.

1. The fact (and I mean fact) that your students' IQs drop noticably.
2. The student who asks the question after you've given the answer.
3. The five students who still ask the same question AFTER the student from #2 has already asked the answered question.
4. The students (one in four) who are given direction, sent off to their sub-chatrooms to work, and the first thing they type is "So what are we supposed to do?"
5. The student who (every week) exactly one hour and fifteen minutes into class asks "Can we go now?"
6. The student who knows the technology better than you.
7. The student who is too easily offended and takes EVERY message typed by the instructor as a personal slam on her (yes, it's always a her).
8. The no shows.
9. The late-comers.
10. The student who doesn't know how to send - much less open - an attachment.
11. The Chatty-Cathy's.
12. D2L
13. UCompass
14. The students who refuse to follow protocol.
15. The fact that you can always predict the one student who will have some issue (technological or other) that will hold up the class.
16. The fact that the chatroom doesn't always refresh properly.
17. The student who reiterates the answer to your question and gets it completely wrong.
18. The student whose only contribution to the classroom chat is "LOL."
19. Emoticons.
20. The students who answer questions for you.
21. The nay-sayers.
22. The students who get frustrated with YOU for their inablility to follow instructions.
23. The students who continue to use Microsoft Works when you've told them over and over not to, and who look utterly bewildered when no one can open their essay draft.
24. The fact that students don't consider an absence from the online session as an absence.
25. The fact that cyberspace is a dumb venue in which to teach students how to write.