Technology: love it/hate it

I’ve always been enamored by technology. I attended college before the advent of personal computers (and never miss an opportunity to regale my children and younger friends with tales of torturous experiences writing term papers on typewriters). I bought a Texas Instruments TI-99 in the early ‘80s. We were the first family on our block to have an Apple IIc. (Okay, there are only two families in our “block,” but you get the idea.) My first classroom computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80 Model III, for which I manually entered programs in BASIC language. (I actually saw one of these in a museum awhile back!)

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying that technology has radically changed our world. I love technology, when it works!

When our school corporation purchased a laptop computer for each student and staff member last year, I became our building’s Technology Integration Specialist. (Don’t take the specialist part too seriously. There wasn’t much competition.) I envisioned spending days in creative bliss, exploring new programs by the hour, and sharing inspired ideas with teachers and students that would revolutionize education. Don’t get me wrong, I do get to do this (well, the description may be a little overblown), but a portion of each day finds me fielding student complaints such as: “My computer’s typing backwards!” “Everything’s upside-down!” “I can’t log in … again!” and the ever-helpful, “My computer won’t work!”

I’m happy to say that our technology assistant and I can probably resolve 90% of these problems, passing the rest on up the line to the real tech people, but it’s not my favorite part of the job. And all those new programs and websites I’m finding? Yeah, each one comes with its own unique personality, peculiarities and glitches. Rarely does a day go by that I’m not contacting our tech department, reading a user manual, searching a forum, or e-mailing a vendor’s tech support to remedy something.

Technology? I love it. But why can’t it just work?!