Day 19 – Sent from my Surface Pro ...at McDonalds
Teaching and Learning with a Windows 8 Tablet3/30/2013
Welcome to Day 19 of working with a Microsoft Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet for educators.
It’s the weekend and I am experiencing another Internet outage. For those of us not living in a major metropolitan city this unfortunately happens way too often in the country.
My electricity service also “blinked” this morning temporarily knocking off all electrical devices in our house. It only lasted one second, and returned immediately, but that blink is all it takes to disrupt modern life.
It is also a reminder to the digerati that while popular culture is increasingly pushing the analog world into the Cloud that there are downsides as well. We need to always have a Plan B.
We also need to keep in mind that reliable Internet access is not available to all of our students. With all the hype around the flip classroom approach to learning there are significant access issues to deal with when expecting students to use technological tools that require Internet access at home. This is exacerbated in lower-income neighborhoods that could benefit most.
Once again, I find myself typing this post on this Surface Pro that is not connected to the Internet. No fault of the Surface Pro, but fault does not matter here, it is a reality for me right now. Since the Surface Pro is a hybrid device, it still works as a stand-alone device, but it is a major inconvenience when I cannot access the Internet.
I have learned to work around these Internet access hiccups and I approach these situations as challenges. If I was “all in” on the cloud computing paradigm my device would currently be useless. I cannot access anything on the Internet, no email, YouTube search engines, Twitter, Facebook, Skydrive, online music, etc… it’s all unavailable to me right now.
So, I have elected to type this post in Word 2013 and find a way to post it later today. This afternoon we are going shopping so I am taking the Surface Pro with me. Hopefully I can find public wireless access somewhere on the road, maybe a McDonalds?
Technology has always been a double-edged sword. Technology offers amazing possibilities when it works, but it is frustrating when things do not work as planned. However, as much as I sometimes get frustrated by things when they do not work, I would not trade my frustration for all the good things that tech allows us to do the other 99% of the time.
As teachers, we are becoming more and more reliant upon technology. Technology is becoming more reliable and thus is being used more and more in the classroom. This is a great thing as it makes possible things that were previously impossible to do in the classroom. Amazing things, like the Worldwide Telescope Project I wrote about yesterday. But, things do go wrong from time-to-time in the classroom and you will have to occasionally adapt your lessons to work around “technical difficulties”.
Do not be the teacher that throws up your hands in frustration and “quit” the lesson and blame the technology. Take it on as a challenge and work around the obstacles. Adapt, adjust, change lessons, there is always something new to be learned. It is sometimes refreshing to take technology completely out of the lesson and focus only on the content and context.
Now for my challenge. Time for a road trip and find a McDonalds.
If you are reading this, mission accomplished.
How many of your students are doing homework at McDonald's?
How many of your students are doing homework at McDonald's?
Until next time...
Keep on Learning,
Keep on Learning,
Tom Grissom, PhD
Follow me on Twitter @tomgrissom
http://www.eiu.edu/itc/
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