Comments on: Limitations?

By: Juno888

Juno888 — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 07:37:10 +0000

I appreciate everyone’s support — and it’s good to hear that I’m not the only one frustrated by these setbacks — but it’s also downright awful to hear that I am not the only one in this situation.
Why do we settle/tolerate this?

By: kmom

kmom — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 03:24:04 +0000

I can understand your frustraition. I don’t know how many tech staff your school has, but at the school my husband works for, he is “it”. And he also teaches a full load of classes daily. So it isn’t always the tech staff’s fault. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. (or weekend, or holiday) Doing the parts that you can do, and learning how to help the tech person might get you much farther than threatening to do it all yourself and messing up the network for the whole school. The tech staff isn’t necessarily the bad guy.

By: Casey Columbus

Casey Columbus — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 00:09:56 +0000

A few days late.

I’m not surprised to hear about this going on, honestly. School officials never seem to be the speediest about getting things done for their classrooms. I actually am seeing something similar with my college–the administration is dragging its feet to upgrade classrooms. The computer labs are simply wonderful, but most of the classrooms lack basic multimedia capabilities. Not a very good idea in a school of liberal arts that trains “working artists”–that is, people who work in music, advertising, film, and other media that require computers and projectors and the like.

I hope things will work out for you.

PS: I’m coming to visit for Michael’s graduation. See you then!

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:09:09 +0000

I admire your restraint from publishing names and lashing out Bud. It’s for the best really, considering how publically known your blog is. You’re right, it would be more productive to focus on how to fix the problem, so I suggest a slightly radical approach to show the tech department that the technology is needed and tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment might be better spent in students’ hands rather than in boxes.

Let the tech staff know you’re going to start setting stuff up yourself. I was in the same situation as you several times and nothing got the tech staff motivated to work on my requests(despite how swamped they claimed to be) like leaving an e-mail or voicemail in someone’s inbox saying that I had started to setup the projector, scanner, or digital camera myself. You have more than enough skill to setup the projector and SMARTboard. You could even go so far as to find the location of the laptops and get one of them up and running and connected to the SMARTboard. Will the tech staff have to reconfigure all of the computers and install the district software? Yes, but they will have even more work to do if you start to set up everything yourself and don’t follow their protocols, which should hopefully be enough motivation for them to get the equipment ready before you can make good on your message of getting things set up yourself.

By: Rachel Previs

Rachel Previs — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:58:04 +0000

I am still in the school of education at the College of William and Mary. I must say I was very disturbed by the setbacks you experienced, and check out what I had to say on my blog http://rfprev.blogspot.com/
As a beginning teacher, I must say I admire your persistence and willingness to continue integrating technology into the classroom despite numerous dead ends.

By: Bud Hunt

Bud Hunt — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:24:18 +0000

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:14:27 +0000

If it makes you feel any better, the pace is similar in higher ed. I’ve been waiting just to be approved for putting laptops in our computer lab (and replace the desktops) for 3 years!! Every time I get told there’s no money. This summer, it’s absolutely supposed to happen, but we’ll see. And don’t even get me started on the glacial pace of other changes. Even worse.

By: Nancy McKeand

Nancy McKeand — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:09:28 +0000

I can really relate to these problems that you have had getting your equipment. On the bright side, though – there is equipment out there that will someday be installed. That’s more than a lot of people can say.

I don’t think of you as being a fearful kind of guy, but I think we all have a tendency to let stumbling blocks keep us from doing things we are conflicted about – while not letting anything stand between us and something we really believe in and are ready to do.

Good luck with the speech class. I am looking forward to following the blogging!

By: Clarence Fisher

Clarence Fisher — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 10:39:20 +0000

It is at times like these when I am always amazed at the speed that education moves. I believe there is no other “industry” that can justify the glacial pace of getting things done. I have been there many times waiting for orders to come in (or even get ordered after the forms have been turned in) for approval for something to happen, or other obstacles to be cleared. I need to end here with a good quote of some kind….. Something like, “damn the torpedoes,” of “I have not yet begun to fight,” but somedays, it takes it must take it all out of you to walk past that whiteboard sitting in your hallway. Good luck.