Biggest Classroom Tech Headaches Hi All, I just want to see which tech problems come up the most among teachers using technology in the classroom. What are some of your biggest tech headaches? In our school, our biggest challenge seems to be the favorite "I don't have time to integrate technology!!!!" Thoughts? Fred
The absolute biggest hassle is when the network/wifi goes down and we can't access any of our stuff or use the Internet.
1. Internet goes out. 2. We only have one computer lab to bring students to that is shared among all of the high school 3. The computer lab doesn't have enough computers for two of my classes, so I encourage students to bring their own laptops if they have them. Many students do bring them, but the tables aren't near the computers, so I'm bouncing between two areas of a large room monitoring students. 4. School computers break. 5. School computers don't print reliably. 6. We are told to encourage students to bring their own devices. Many of my students will research/write papers on their phones (or say that's what they are doing). It's hard for me to monitor what they are doing on their phones since the screen is small. 7. Many of my students have trouble moving files from one location to another. If we start writing essays in the computer lab, several of them always have a hard time saving it to access on another device- they don't have email, don't have a flash drive, don't use google docs, don't use icloud, don't have dropbox. 8. My projector must have loose wires or something because it is sensitive and goes out if I jostle it. My projector isn't mounted to the ceiling, so I always get blinded or make an awkward shadow as I circulate the room. 9. I don't have a projector clicker so I have to walk back to the computer each time I want to progress the slides 10. Because not 100% of my students have access to internet, I have to offer things both electronically and in paper if I want to do something digitally. I have this awesome website that I created, full of google forms, documents, assignments, and links. It's really easy to use. I could run much of my class through the website, but it was too much work to keep up with both the digital side of things and the paperwork side of things. Some of my honors students use the resources part of the website, but most of my students never look at it because they don't have to.
We are a 1:1 district! Three years ago, if someone would've told me that all 650 kiddos at my site would have their very own device, I would have scoffed. During testing season (when we take the SBAC or any other exam) something always seems to go wrong with our WiFi. It is very frustrating.
Thank you for all the responses! Do you have tech support to help out? Also, how do you plan tech integration into your curriculum?
The internet goes out is the most common issue. My main headache is dealing with district bureaucracy in getting the internet fixed, unblocking a specific website or app, or being able to do anything in general. The district is very very distrusting of teachers to be able to do anything with technology and they remain our biggest obstacle. I'm a tech teacher at our school and one of our technology integration leaders. I help teachers with basic problems with technology, do training to help give them ideas on how to use tech in the classroom, and I run a student tech squad that will (eventually) go around the school and assist in tech issues.
We just have no tech. Teachers who have it have funded it through donations. That's annoying. It's time to join the rest of the world and have technology in all classrooms.
My computer will be randomly slow for absolutely no reason. Like this morning I could barely even show my power point, but by the end of class it was perfectly fine. But by far my biggest pet peeve is that we have no computer lab, only a computer classroom. Any technological projects must be done at home or after school hours.
The biggest thing is that our laptops are 100% wireless, so that means I can't even login without working internet, which means can't plan/make copies and can't teach depending on what I've planned to teach. I've been in the middle of a lesson projecting a power point and my computer logged me off. It doesn't really happen as much anymore, because I think the tech people have worked out the kinks, but my colleague the other day had issues, but I did not.
We are a 1:1 district too...BUT the bandwidth was horrible (Better now) and the lil guys have HP slates which are useless...
Smartboard issues. The tech department either has no clue how to fix things are just doesn't want to take the time. I needed a minor issue dealt with and it's taking 6 months. They really seem like a bunch of buffoons in that department.
Our biggest tech headache is our internet filter. It is constantly blocking useful things and letting "bad" things through, and causing connectivity issues. It seems pointless since it doesn't work, but I think our district is afraid of a lawsuit if someone gets upset over something and it turns out we don't have some form of protection. It really causes way more headaches than anything else at this point! We have two tech assistants for the entire district with nearly 4,500 students that is in the process of going 1:1...
Oh and my doc cam randomly doesn't work. I have the HoverCam Flex and sometimes it just flashes bright colors and a garbled image. I have had all the tech people out to look at it, reinstalled the software, and even had it replaced, only to have the new device do the same thing! It happens to everyone who has this model. I think it's a software issue, but no one seems to want to bother to try and fix it anymore...It's really not good especially as I have a student with a severe seizure disorder whose main trigger is changes in light.
It looks like a lot of the problems, so far, includes unreliable internet connection and lack of competent tech support. How about training? How and how long do you and your faculty get trained with tech?
As far as training, my district provides training, but most of the technology tools I use, I have learned on my own. One school I worked at had a great system. They hired a technology integration specialist. He would meet with each teacher once every two weeks, and would show us things that we could use in our classroom. He was able to show the basics to those who really didn't have experience with technology, and show more advanced stuff to the more experienced technology users. It worked great!
