In an ideal world, we would have access to technologies and learners who are capable of using them to their maximum extent when designing technology-enhanced lesson plans. As we all know, this often is not the case.
What are some examples of tech-failures from your own teaching or the teaching of your peers? Examples might included hardware that did not work as intended after major investment, lack of access to critical software as required by a lesson, or the denial of the use of hardware or software by your administration. How was this problem addressed at the time? What might you do differently (or suggest be done differently) now?
What are some examples of tech-failures from your own teaching or the teaching of your peers? Examples might included hardware that did not work as intended after major investment, lack of access to critical software as required by a lesson, or the denial of the use of hardware or software by your administration. How was this problem addressed at the time? What might you do differently (or suggest be done differently) now?
After Shane showed our class the "Explain Everything" app, I decided to ask for it at school. I have a large special education population this year and many of them struggle with physically writing. In comes technology! We have two iPad carts that we are allowed to use with our students and I thought that the app would have been fantastic for students to do book reports with, rather than the traditional oral presentation. Little did I know that it would be quite a process to do this. I initially emailed the overwhelmed technology aid in my building and asked her to add the app to the iPads. She replied, "We can but the procedure is to go to your director to make sure it's curriculum appropriate then Donna (Principal) needs to ok using her funds. Finally Brian (Tech Director) will make the purchase and email me the code so I can install. And you thought this was a yes or no question." Yikes. To make a long story short, after doing all of this, I received an email from the Superintendent himself saying, "Absolutely not."
ReplyDeleteI'm still kind of in shock at the abrupt response, especially since I was not given a reason. However, the next time I do this, (and there will be many next times), I will make sure to align my request with the district's acceptable use policy. I feel that if I show them HOW it will fit into the curriculum and use the exact same language in my request that is listed in the AUP, then how can they say no...ha. I'm optimistic!
-Laura B.
That response from your superintendent in GARBAGE, Laura! It's bad enough that he's in a position of leadership being the type of person who can give 2-word responses to a teacher who is requesting something that they feel will help the students. But it's terrible, too, that he would toss off a technology request, obviously not knowing how beneficial it can be--but he also didn't look into it. I think your idea of getting parents involved is right on.
DeleteYou should keep fighting for your students, and show your parents how important, and RELEVANT the technology is to their children. If the top down doesn't work, and it usually doesn't because they realize how out of the loop or out of touch they are, then start from the bottom and climb up. Don't EVER,EVER,EVER give up when you know what is right!
DeleteWith our new bring your own device program, we found the not all rooms get Wi-Fi
ReplyDeleteSo they decide to put in hot spots through out the building, which they did, but still a lot of rooms do not get reception. I attempted to a lesson last week, and found that some places in my room kids could get on and other could not. We muddle thorough but it was not what I had envisioned.
I could not imagine the challenge of implementing BYOD. Dealing with so many types of devices and wifi connections. It seems like there is a lot of upside after the learning curve
DeleteMy school implemented the BYOD model this year and it has been fine. The students and teachers do not have access to the wireless network but most of the kids have data plans. So far I have not heard of too many problems associated with it but I also have not heard of any teachers implementing specific lessons that incorporate it. Time will tell....
DeleteI know all about that Jackie and am green with envy when I see the classrooms with the hotspots hooked up. It has been very frustrated.
DeleteI don’t want to be a downer but unfortunately, there have been many more tech failures than successes in my building. Over the years we have had smart boards installed in each classroom. However, just having it on the wall is not enough. Many were installed using the wrong dimensions so no matter how much you zoom in or out the picture coming out of the projector was too large for the screen. This meant that you could not press on the start button on the screen because it was off of the screen on the wall. Also, you could not scroll within a document because the scroll bar was not on the screen, it was on the wall. This happened in many rooms and it took a few years before they were all fixed. We also purchased COW’s a few years ago. These are computers on wheels, basically a cart of laptop computers. They worked kind of alright for a few months but now they are so slow that most teachers do not bother to use them. In a 45 minute class, by the time direction is given, the laptops are passed out and all of the students successfully log on, 20 minutes may have passed. That would leave 15 minutes to work and 10 minutes to put everything away because there is a special process that needs to be followed when putting them away. It’s just not worth it. This year there were wireless routers installed in each room but of course they have not been opened up for anyone to use. I could go on with many more examples. I wished I worked in a private catholic school with a lot of access to technology that is supported and encouraged.
ReplyDeleteDavid Gionfriddo
Unbelievable story about the smartboards. That is just crazy. I got one for you too. At my childrens' school this year they installed smartboards in every classroom. Only they did not have enough money to also install the LCD projector that goes with it to the ceiling. SO, the teachers have it on a cart but as you know those things have to align with the smartboard perfectly so anytime a kid bumps it, etc... they have to realign it! If they didn't have money to finish the job they should have not even bothered! I was thinking of contacting the school board about this.
DeleteWe also have COWs that are not worth the effort because they are slow when everyone is on the internet with them and half of them don't work, etc.... We just got Google Chrome books. I have not tried them yet but will be doing so this week. Many teachers are using them and they seem to work better than the old laptop carts.
Overall, I have been very fortunate with the use of technology in my classroom. Back in 2003 we had 2 Smart Boards in my school. There was a sign out sheet and we had to share them equally. No one else wanted to use them, so I had one in my room all of the time. When we were able to buy a Mimio and projector for a classroom in the school, I received the first one. I also was able to get a document camera later on. Oh there were challenges with internet connections in the computer lab at times and things like that, but that just reminded me to have a back up plan. Today I am in a school that has 25 I pads, a full computer lab with 25 stations that work, and almost every classroom has a projector, a Mimio, and a document camera. One frustration I have has been seeing equipment not set up in a timely fashion and not seeing other teachers trained to integrate the technology into their lessons. I think the biggest challenge is the lack of synergy of efforts to teach computer skills and digital citizenship in the district. At the elementary level, there is a real lack of resources going towards this. OK, one more thing. We have had a cart with 25 laptops in our school since August that is still unwrapped. It is frustrating to see this resource sitting there unused.
ReplyDeleteJohn, we have similar problems at my school with regards to Smartboards. We recently received Smartboards, however, the only training on the Smartboard came from a hour long in-service from a fellow peer who was deemed to be the expert because he was the most experienced one in using this technology. Technology is great, but if nobody is trained on how to use it, then it is difficult to integrate into teaching and learning.
DeleteThe school that I work at is definitely behind with regards to educational technology. Only certain classrooms have the use of Smartboards and I am a lucky one who has one. However, they reconfigured my computer over the summer and I lost the tools options for my Smartboard, so I cannot fully utilize its capabilities. Procedure is to fill out a technology ticket with the problem and the IT department will solve it. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, our IT team consists of three members who service all the schools in the town in addition to central office and the police department. So the IT department as you can imagine is busy and to make matters worse, we are down to only two members. I still do not have the tools options for my SmartBoard yet. Additionally, I have a postgraduate student who cannot access the network and use the computers because he has not been set up with a password. I have to log him onto the network using my password. I followed procedure and filled an IT ticket, but the problem still not has been resolved. Other technology problems include our computers on wheels or COWs. These laptop computers are really outdated and take a long time to boot up. By the time every student in the class logs on, at least 10 to 15 minutes are wasted. It would be ideal if students can bring in their own laptops or ipads for educational purposes. However, policy in our school does not allow this and our building is not equipped with wifi access throughout. This would alleviate some of the computer use problems.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness---FIREWALLS! Every day I have a YouTube clip to show my students to assess other performances of various choirs. Most of the time, my network lets me on no problem. But ONE time during each day, no matter what I try, it prevents me from getting to that video. I've tried downloading apps to "download" YouTube clips.... doesn't work. I've tried EVERYTHING.... and my students sit there and sit there while I try to get past it and figure it out. This is the most frustrating thing for me as I'm trying very hard to integrate technology in every class... and when it doesn't cooperate (because of a firewall that should be EASILY passable for teachers), it's very hard to deal with.
ReplyDeleteMy problem is that I don't have internet in my band room. So, when I go to teach a lesson in my General Music class (in the band room), I can't use YouTube or anything (which is great to show video and audio footage of artists that we're learning about), unless I go to one of our three computer labs. Now, one issue with the computer labs is that you have to beat other teachers in the building to the sign up sheet, and another is that most of the computers don't work!!! I don't know how this is acceptable in this day and age, but I guess our one tech guy is too backed up (understandably) to keep up with it.
ReplyDelete...oh, and in response to part 2 (what I do differently)...until they get more computers or do a BYO program, the only thing I can do is have a plan B on those days that I'd like to use the computer room.
DeleteAaron, I feel like I ALWAYS have to have a plan B lately. It's kind of frustrating! Unfortunately, certain things that you can do with technology are impossible to do without. I guess it's just something we all have to do- a "nature of the beast" type of mentality, but it does get very draining on the lesson planning portion of my day.
DeleteAlways have a plan B, C, D, E...
DeleteI have tried to show some cool video clips in my class over the past year and was unable to show them due to the video buffering constantly. It was very discouraging. I also had to sign out the portable LCD projector every time I wanted to show something and there is only ONE available for the entire school! We have 1250 students! Because I am teaching the Agile Minds math program this year (which is computer based) I got an LCD projector installed on my ceiling and I have a document camera now too. These two devices are making my job SO much easier. I am so looking forward to showing cool things off my computer to my students in all of my classes this year. I already have done so much with it. And I just turned in my old overhead projector! Yes, I was still using an overhead projector up until this year!
ReplyDeleteI taught my lesson plan in th English class I support and could not show the youtube video that supported the lesson because it has been blocked. Our tech people are working on this but it has been weeks now! We also have difficulty connecting online because now that students can bring their own devices the system is bogged down. I always have a back up plan becuase the technology in or school is pretty poor. When we tell students to look up a word, for example, using their phone in English class and the system is down, we go back to old school methods- the dictionary and thesaurus. When I could not use the youtube video to review the Tell Tale Heart with illustration then we have a discussion of the story and I try to be as animated as possible to get the kids interested.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest frustration is rainy, muggy days like today. You may laugh, but it is true. It causes our internet to lag, and it drives me crazy! My students are very patient, and when I cant stream through my laptop, their first response is to always suggest to stream through my iPad. What I am proud of is the fact that the students help me, as well as other teachers, to problem solve and figure out what to do. I think that speaks volumes for what are students are learning. It isn't about the technology, or the tool, it is about the problem solving and critical thinking that our students are learning when we encounter rainy, muggy days!
ReplyDelete