More on Prof Ratings

The Village Voice's Hot for Teacher article got me thinking about ratemyprofessors and other teacher-rating sites again. I may be reaching a bit, as I'm immersed in learning about learning goals right now, but I'm wondering whether this is another example of learners using social software to figure out and take action on an important component if a learning goal within an educational program. They may not have much lattitude in course selection, but if they can choose a section with an instructor who seems likely to be a better match for them, isn't that a type of empowerment? Taking responsibility for their learning? Perhaps not for those students who are choosing based on optimizing the "easiness" and "hotness" ratings for the prof.