Today I needed to email a PDF file to a student of mine. Our school district has district-created email addresses for every single student; I logged onto our student information system and district email system, clicked on the student's name, clicked on his email address, attached the PDF, and hit send.
The email was returned as "undeliverable". If that doesn't tell you about the kinds of difficulties I encounter regarding our "technology services"....
Technology can be a great friend-I use Google Classroom daily. I use Google Forms to help organize competitions. But the problem comes when there are multiple platforms in use. We have PowerMacs, but we use Chrome browsers for all the Google apps and then we also use MS Office functions as well. It becomes truly problematic knowing where a document has gone or where it came from. I'm missing an entire class' assignments right now. Our biggest problem comes when our Tech department lags behind approving updates. Consequently many of the sites I access and functions I use will soon become inoperable because our Tech department won't allow us to update them. There is also the problem with student distraction. All of our students are supposed to have school issued IPads. We base many of our assignments, tests, etc on that idea. But half the time the kids have let tablets run down their batteries playing games or watching movies, which means they can't use it in class without charging. I don't have 30 outlets in my classroom. I don't know the answer. It's just what I have experienced.
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