02.08.08
Technical problems enhance reflection?
Posted in Social Media in ELT tagged Smielt08, technical problems at 10:26 am by editasaluzzo
Social media is about connecting, commenting, blogging. Technical problems, like no telephone line at home have isolated me. I feel like an island, but have decided to take this time for reflecting. I just hope that when the workshop is over, all the links and reading will be here for me to follow. Overcoming frustration, I keep on reflecting on how to use this tools in my lessons. I fear the technical problems that will surely frustrate my students, so this realistic time in Argentina is helping me after all. I´ve read many posts about the teacher as a learner, connected with a community of teacher-learners, who then enthusiastically comes into the classroom to share “the connected world “with his/her students. Experiencing this temporary disconnection is preparing me to come back to my Argentinian classrooms where the “connected world” is still a science fiction movie.
Gabriela Sellart said,
February 8, 2008 at 10:41 am
Edita, I’ve been having technical problems too. Not with the connection this time, but first with the hardware and then with the software. I also felt isolated.
You’re right,the “connected world” is still a science fiction movie here in Argentina. And I think that we have to keep that in mind. When we accept that fact as a reality, we overcome frustration more easily.
hope your problems are over
Patricia Glogowski said,
February 8, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Edita,
Isn’t this incredible how much we have become dependent on our connection to the world? Remember life before we all had a speedy access to the Internet and before we all started participating in social media groups
Seems like ages ago and like an impossible life, really 
Nancy said,
February 9, 2008 at 12:16 am
When I first started blogging, I had a similar problem. My students had very limited internet access. Now I am in the same situation – with no access to technology of any kind. I admire you for using your “down” time for reflection. I usually just complain!
In a situation like yours, I think you have to really think hard about the technology you incorporate into your classes. It would be easier, it seems, to choose one tool at a time to use. And maybe a tool that could be done in stages, around technical difficulties. Blogging, of course, seems like a good one to use because posts could be composed offline and pasted into the blog later if there was no connection.
Good luck with whatever you do. I hope you will continue to blog and let us follow your adventure.
illya arnet-clark said,
February 11, 2008 at 7:16 pm
What you are experiencing in difficulties is a good reminder for me of what can happen when you rely on technology. We truly are becoming dependant and I for one get very upset when things go wrong.
But there is another aspect here, and that is of problems in general in trying to use tools with which our students are totally unfamiliar and perhaps very skeptical about. I’m still not sure as to how to deal with this ind of problem, but I do wish you good luck in connecting!