The internet is a double edged rusty old machete

('Cause swords are so passe)

Apart from the obvious reasons (lots of information, but lots of distractions), the internet is something I love and I hate with respect to homework. On the one hand, online homework is nice because you get instant feedback - if you've done something wrong, you find out right away and can fix it instead of waiting a week for someone to messily and in-a-hurry grade it. On the other hand, these programs are just algorithms and not smart human beings, so you get stuff like the following:

"I'm trying to get webassign to fix the algorithm. Your concentrations give the correct equilibrium constant when you plug them into the equilibrium constant expression, which is the best way to show that they are correct. If I can't get webassign to fix the algorithm, I'll check all the answers to 10 (e) manually and give you credit."

"For #9 there is also a rounding issue. Webassign takes the [Ag+] concentration and rounds it to two sig figs before using to find [PO₄^3-] and Ksp. Note: this is NOT the way I would like you to do calculations on quizzes and the final and in general!!! You should carry an extra sig fig or two through your calculation and round at the end."

WebAssign is not usually this bad, but Webwork, the program we're using in math this term, has one or two problems with typos or that otherwise need to be removed almost every problem set - and its notation is very inconsistent.

We're at a rather awkward place with technology and I'm not sure if forward or backward is the direction I'd prefer to go.