Sunday, March 1, 2009

Unreliable

If I have a 'problem' with technology in the education arena, it is its unreliability. I have been to many presentations that have been ruined by a technological blunder or equipment failure. In fact, throughout this masters program many of my classmates have been foiled by technological unreliability. These malfunctions tend to happen at the most inopportune times. I have seen wedding reception power-points go badly awry, embedded video fail to play for students attempting to present their materials, and whole labs lose internet access just when my history students have computer time booked.

Despite the fact that technology has changed education and will certainly continue to do so, there are many problems with reliability and application that must be improved upon. It seems to me that many networks and computer systems are unnecessarily complicated. For example, our school division technology department was beaming over its installation of kilometers of state of the art wire in our building this summer. This seems like a step backwards. Why are we installing a spaghetti-like mess of extremely expensive wire when we are supposedly in the 'wireless' age? This is just a small example, but my point is that technology is, at present, both complicating and unreliable. I believe we are still in the embryonic stage of technological development and application and that must has to be done to make things simpler and more practical for the masses.

2 comments:

  1. Honestly, from my experience, I still believe the technology is less to blame than those who implement/install/support the technologies, or those that chose a poor technology in the first place (as you allude to above). I think once you really get to understand the tools, you can gain the understanding to troubleshoot yourself. Of course, in line with this, there is great importance in having a backup plan as a teacher or presenter.

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  2. Trevor, do you remember my video presentation to Steve at the Northwest College when I couldn't get my video to work? That was after my computer had crashed the night before leaving me to re-write a 15 page essay in under a week?? I love technology until it leaves you feeling helpless.....

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