Amy+Robertson

Technology and I have a love/hate relationship. When used properly and for the right reasons, technology can be an amazing tool to reach students on a level far and above the chalk and board lectures I know and love from high school. However, in my school system, we use technology too many times to present a certain image to the public rather than for truly educational purposes. For example, over the summer Windows 7 was installed on all our teacher laptops. However, the people responsible were informed that our computers did not have adequate capacity to run Windows 7 without problems. In addition, the state does not support STI on WIndows 7. We loaded it anyway. Since August we have had so many computer issues that it is almost unreal. Cursors skip while typing, programs freeze for minutes on end, we must access all STI functions through the internet version instead of the server. "Why?" we asked, "did we do this?" Because it looks good for us to have the latest and greatest versions of software. Hmmmm... I just don't understand the logic of that. When it works correctly, however, I use technology to enhance teaching. My classes use on online editing service to clean up their essays; every faculty member has a Moodle account; we use Google docs for everything under the sun. I suppose my concern lies with the administrative decision-making rather than the technology itself. (A. Robertson)