Technology in the classroom is an incredibly valuable educational asset that can deliver content efficiently, differentially, and in ways that captivate the modern learner's increasingly-digital mind. Until it crashes. Or won't let you log on. Leaving you running around the computer lab like the a solo waiter trying to pull off his first shift at a busy restaurant.
This was me on Wednesday at SBHS during 4th period, when our class was slated to take an online survey as part of a UCSB research project. No lives were lost in the melee or educational futures squashed, but it was a sobering example of how helpless we, as educators, can find ourselves when beloved technology fails on us. Surely there were steps we could have taken to avoid last week's online survey fiasco, such as checking out the computer lab's functional status the day before or during prep, but neither my CT or I thought to do so. We take these things--functioning computers--for granted more than we should; that being said, it never hurts to have a backup plan.
As much as I love the ubiquitousness of doc cams and YouTube, a part of me feels that the brick-and-mortar system of textbooks and black/whiteboards will always need to be the backbone in my repertoire of teaching gimmicks. I guess it all boils down to control of my classroom and the reliability of content delivery. Right now I'm on the fence about the extent that techno-gizmos will deliver my class' content but, at the same time, I'm open to hear about how little I know about them.
