Welcome to DigiLit Sunday. I hope you will write a post about how digital literacy is working (or not working) in your classroom and link up with Mr. Linky at the end of this post.
I had a frustrating week with technology. I do not like to be negative, but when technology doesn’t work, it is maddening. I have been setting up my classrooms (yes, I have 2) this week. Since I have decided to use the website Wonderopolis for a weekly language lesson, it is imperative that my connections to the Promethean work. Wonderopolis is interactive, so you have to be able to use your pens on the board.
My school system gave every certified teacher a laptop about 4 years ago. This has been very good for me as I switch from one school to another. I just take the laptop with me, and everything I need is there. I have had trouble off and on for the last few years with my laptop connecting to the Promethean. Lots has been done to it to try to resolve the problem. This week, however, the technician who came pronounced that it was a hardware problem, and the laptop was out of warranty, so I was out of options.
In order to be able to use one of the two desktops for the Promethean, I had to reconfigure my classroom. That meant moving furniture by myself. But by Friday, I had it all rearranged. Then another technician came by. She tried everything, determined to make the laptop connect. Yet again, there was no solution. Now I have to order a splitter thing to be able to see the desktop monitor as well as the Promethean board. Office Depot didn’t carry it. It is now ordered.
Now I am learning to save everything to Dropbox so that I can use it at both schools. Dropbox is a great tool. I have two accounts, one with my school email address and one with my personal account. I use Dropbox to share documents with my writing group and with my gifted team.
I hope next Sunday I will have some good news about technology. I am trying to take this all in stride and hope it is not an indication of the kind of school year I will have.
So sorry about the problems, Margaret. There are so many things to consider in a school building. Our wireless is terrific in certain parts but very slow in others. To upload and share a short video is nearly impossible for some. Frustrating! I hope your issues are solved soon! I tried a ThingLink today, see what you think! Will connect with you as often as I can!
I can so relate to your woes, Margaret! The more there is to explore and share with our kids to engage them and make their learning interesting, the more problems we seem to run into executing these ideas in our classrooms. But, we persevere!
Margaret, I understand the issues and glitches that technology offers us but love what it can bring as a connection to enhance literacy. As I was planning to continue tweeting and posting the power shut down in my house this morning. I am back up and ready to think about DigLitSunday.
Technology is great when it works properly and quickly. I remember when I used to wait an eternity for dial-up to connect. Nowadays I’m frustrated if a page doesn’t load quickly enough. Oh how times change!
May your technology work better this week!
Don’t you feel like your character has been ever so much built by the experience. May the digital road rise to meet you.