When the Tech Doesn’t Work-EP103

As teachers, we don't necessarily need more ideas.

We need things that are actually going to work in our classroom.

So I hope in the next 15-ish or so minutes, we're going to build something that you can use today, tomorrow, or even right after listening to today's show.

So let's get diving in.

So I want to start with a story.

And I wanna tell you about a lesson that honestly did not go the way it was supposed to.

So I want you to picture this.

A teacher spends the whole weekend, the whole night, just a lot of time setting up a lesson, setting up a new tool that we're gonna use in class, They make accounts, they watch tutorials, they build the activity, and we're ready.

Like we've done everything we know as a teacher.

When we walk into our classroom, those kids are ready for our activity, no matter what program you're using, right? And you can think about whatever program that may be.

So, you walk into class, first period walks in, they sit down, they open their devices, they start logging in, and you know what? Nothing works.

Passwords aren't working, the website times out, half the class maybe be frozen on a screen, the other class has already found something else to do, 20 minutes in, the lesson's gone, right? And I think that's an issue, right? So now what do we do, right? Or even you've built all this, everything works perfect, you've got your kids loaded, they've gone to the website and you start walking them through it and kids are getting lost, they don't know where their buttons are, they're not, I wouldn't say not following the directions, but they're not where they're supposed to be, and now you're managing more of where they're clicking, and you're just not getting where you wanna be, right? Have you ever experienced those things? I feel like especially for me as an innovation specialist or other known as an instructional technology coach, I feel like a lot of times I've gone into a classroom to demo it.

I know the program in and out.

We've got some awesome things planned.

But then as we're doing it, the kids are struggling to follow my directions.

Or they just, I don't know, their logins are not working.

We're dealing with other issues.

And that's a struggle.

What do you do? Do you keep spending 20 minutes trying to figure it out? Or do you pivot and turn, right? So...

Here's some things that I think about, right? The real problem is what I want to say first.

And it's not even the real problem, and it's not the teacher didn't fail at what we were doing, right? The plan maybe skipped a step, right? And that step is one that I think could have changed everything and is one most teachers, I don't know, maybe just don't think about And we just don't do it a lot of times, but it's a practice run, right? EdTech tools almost never work perfectly the first time.

in a room full of students, or even I've presented this past year, I presented at TCA on one of my favorite programs, Wayground.

There's 60 people in the room.

I knew the program in and out.

I knew what we needed to do.