Technophobia

Here’s a nice bulleted list for you, detailing various reasons I might be afraid of incorporating internet technology into the classroom:

Ø  Looking incompetent

Ø  Students accessing inappropriate sites (other than porn)

Ø  Students accessing inappropriate sites (including porn)

Ø  Server goes down

Ø  Firewall prevents students from accessing appropriate sites, yet somehow allows them to visit www.thisisinappropriate.com (not a real website… probably)

Ø  School laptops include cameras… I’m not really sure why I fear this, but I do

Ø  Students break computers, pull off keys, or hit control+alt+up arrow and I get blamed for it

Ø  Students use computers as weapons (not an actual fear, but it should be)

Ø  How much time is it going to take me to come up with a lesson plan that isn’t the one I’ve been relying on for the past thousand years?  Fear of time commitment should definitely go to the top of the list.  Seriously, that’s the biggy for me.

Ø  Also, looking incompetent

The biggest thing I can do to alleviate these fears is just jump in – or get pushed in, which is essentially what happened by taking a class entitled “Technology in Education.”  (*WOOT! WOOT!  SHOUT OUT COHORT 222!  HOLLA!!!*)

Granted, the fears listed above aren’t actually fears per se, so much as apprehensions.  I’ve never really worried about students accessing porn, or students breaking the computers.  There’ve been a couple instances of student vandalism, but really, they’re just doing their work.

I do worry about looking incompetent, but I worry about that (and basically awkward situations in general) with every aspect of my life. 

Technology will fail, but that’s a risk worth taking.  It’s working most of the time – and the payoff seems worth it.

As for the time… geez…  Nothing comes to mind to help me alleviate that fear.  I’m worried that I won’t be able to access the WebQuest I made for my class after my 30 day free trial is over.   You should check it out.  It’s pretty good.  You can find it HERE.  (If you can’t click on that link, it’s because I’ve decided to put some more finishing touches on the WebQuest… or because my 30 day free trial is over and they took it down.)  I don’t know where I’m going to come up with more time…

Oh well.  In the words of H. Jackson Brown Jr., “Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”

That’s not alleviating much though…