Comments on: Technological Frustrations

By: Larry Ferlazzo

Larry Ferlazzo — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 12:59:09 +0000

Alice,

I hadn’t heard that term before. Thanks for writing about it.

Larry

By: alicemercer

alicemercer — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 06:01:58 +0000

Larry, a lot of tech trainers talk about “click quotas” how many times a user is willing to click with the mouse before getting to their intended destination. Good programmers and designers know you can’t have too many “barriers” like clicks or users will be frustrated. I think many of us using technology, no matter how adept, do not like to face barriers, especially random, stupid, or just plain puzzling ones.

By: Joel Zehring

Joel Zehring — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:30:56 +0000

Jerry,

I led a workshop on projectors in the classroom. Many times, teachers just don’t know what to do with them. You’ll find ideas for classroom uses here:

Projector Ideas (K-3)

Projector Ideas (4-6)

By: Larry Ferlazzo

Larry Ferlazzo — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 18:04:45 +0000

Joel,

I love your line:

“A book doesn’t refuse to open, and a sheet of line paper is never “read-only” (unless the kid forgets her pencil).”

Jerry,

I’m generally not willing to go outside my comfort zone unless I see clearly that it’s going to help me do what I want to do.

I can understand your frustration. During my nineteen year career as a community I was often frustrated by the difficulty I had getting people engaged in public life. I always found, though, that I ended up being much more effective, and less frustrated, by focusing more on learning people’s self-interests through building relationships with them. I was then able to not only learn a lot from others, but I was also able to reframe my propositions in the context of their own agendas — not mine.

You might, or might not, find this post useful. I talk about the same topic there:

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/02/09/the-best-ways-for-students-and-anyone-else-to-create-online-content-easily-quickly-painlessly/

Larry

By: Jerry

Jerry — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:48:44 +0000

As a technology specialist in a public high school, I have to admit, I do get frustrated by the lack of excitement from the teachers with regards to technology in the classroom. Our district spent a lot of money this year equipping all of the classrooms in the district with ceiling mounted projectors and audio systems in every classroom. It is my job, as a tech specialist to facilitate the use of technology in my school. There are too many teachers who are unwilling to even try anything new. I believe we are doing a disservice to our students if we are not using the tech that is available to us. Kids do not learn as we did when we were kids. No longer can a teacher stand at the front of the class and lecture for 90 minutes and expect the student to have a clue about what’s going on. Students need to be engaged visually and technology is a great way to facilitate this way of learning…I just don’t see enough people willing to step out of their comfort zone to make this happen.

By: Joel Zehring

Joel Zehring — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:48:58 +0000

Great post, great perseverance.
It all boils down to friction. Emotional friction, mental friction, relational friction. Teachers are masters of cobbling together exemplary lessons, activities, and experiences, but when the tools refuse to be used, I can’t blame teachers for defaulting to more cooperative solutions. A book doesn’t refuse to open, and a sheet of line paper is never “read-only” (unless the kid forgets her pencil).

By: Larry Ferlazzo

Larry Ferlazzo — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 13:05:32 +0000

Kevin,

Thanks for the support, and for adding some additional important points…

Larry

By: dogtrax

dogtrax — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:12:50 +0000

I think the points you raise are very valid.
Many teachers would not push after the first hurdle and who can blame them? They have busy lives and getting involved in administrative disputes or arguing for their access is not up many people’s alleys.
But it still needs to be one.
We need to continue to advocate for the merits of the possibilities on behalf of our students and, perhaps just as important, bring administrators and technology coordinators on board. Make them part of the solution, not a scapegoat for the problems.
Thanks for sharing, Larry.
Kevin

By: Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… » Technological Frustrations

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:06:38 +0000

[...] Technological Frustrations is the title of a post I’ve just written for “In Practice,” a group blog written by a number of us who teach in low-income communities. [...]