Comments on: I would use technology more if… http://ryancollins.org/2006/10/24/i-would-use-technology-more-if/ Educational Technology Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:16:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: John Schinker http://ryancollins.org/2006/10/24/i-would-use-technology-more-if/comment-page-1/#comment-960 John Schinker Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:03:12 +0000 http://ryancollins.org/wp/2006/10/24/i-would-use-technology-more-if/#comment-960 It looks like the teacher is just upset that they can't install some application that they want to use. Ultimately, the tech department is responsible for making sure everything works together, and for fixing and supporting the hardware, software, and infrastructure. I can't imagine doing that with each teacher making his or her own hardware and software decisions. Just dealing with word processing file formats would be enough to make me tear my hair out. I think teachers (and some administrators) buy into the hype too much. They go to some conference, or see some advertisement, and are totally sold on the application du jour. That's why we end up with things like Boardmaker (glorified clipart), Inspiration (for those who can't find the drawing toolbar in Word), and Kurzweil and Write OutLoud (for those who don't realize that the Mac has been able to read text to them since 1984). Tech support people do geeky things like reading EULAs. When they see things like Skype saying, "oh, yeah, and we can basically do anything we want to your machine and your network," they tend to think twice about how critical the new application is. Since we don't always explain our reasons, the teachers can get frustrated. It looks like the teacher is just upset that they can’t install some application that they want to use. Ultimately, the tech department is responsible for making sure everything works together, and for fixing and supporting the hardware, software, and infrastructure. I can’t imagine doing that with each teacher making his or her own hardware and software decisions. Just dealing with word processing file formats would be enough to make me tear my hair out.

I think teachers (and some administrators) buy into the hype too much. They go to some conference, or see some advertisement, and are totally sold on the application du jour. That’s why we end up with things like Boardmaker (glorified clipart), Inspiration (for those who can’t find the drawing toolbar in Word), and Kurzweil and Write OutLoud (for those who don’t realize that the Mac has been able to read text to them since 1984).

Tech support people do geeky things like reading EULAs. When they see things like Skype saying, “oh, yeah, and we can basically do anything we want to your machine and your network,” they tend to think twice about how critical the new application is.

Since we don’t always explain our reasons, the teachers can get frustrated.

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