CURMUDGUCATION: Non-Transformative Technology

CURMUDGUCATION: Non-Transformative Technology:

Non-Transformative Technology

I'm not sure when you'll get to see this. My internet service provider is having one of its regular hissy fits, and my access to the internet cuts out about every five minutes or so, staying out from anywhere from a couple of minutes to as along as fifteen. So I get to access the internet in little brief windows, snatches of connectivity.

My internet provider (rhymes with "shmerizon") occasionally offers their version of help (turns out that if you bitch about them on twitter, you will usually get a response-- if, of course, you can get on twitter). Help can involve on-line chats and on-line twitter conversations, which-- surprise-- are not very helpful when the problem is low-function internet connection. We also try the occasional phone conversation, which is when they give me a call and all I have to do is be at home during the five-hour windows in which they might call (though that window seems to be a give-or-take-ten-hours thing).

I don't know how things are in your part of the world, but here in my town, my experience is not abnormal. We have a choice of basically two providers (choice #2 rhymes with "shmime-flarner") and nobody is raving happily about either of them.

I get that this is a classic First World Problem, that I live in an age of technological miracles and here I am bitching that the miracles don't happen fast enough or just the way I want them.

But here's my point-- my provider is also the provider for my school district. If I were trying to use internet resources to teach a class, I'd be SOL.

I am one of the more tech-forward teachers in my building, but I am also tech-skeptical, because CURMUDGUCATION: Non-Transformative Technology: