No Connectivity
Wireless was installed in my wing yesterday. I was asked& happily volunteered to test it out with my students today. While seeing the IT guys playing around the laptops I should have known that free& clear would not be available for the agenda today.
Immediately upon logging in the kids couldn't access the internet. This has happened enough to us that they tried what they've learned to fix it ~ close& reopen, check if the computer needs to be restarted to finish installing updates, & changing the wirelesses connection. None of that worked. But they persevered. Finally, they shut down& restarted. That seemed to do the trick.
Everyday, when the kids are out of earshot, I joke that 1 smooth day on the netbooks would be nice. (I'd actually settle for an hour.) As annoying as it may be that these technological glitches turn a 1/2 hour into 2, it is quite marvelous to see how they function in these circumstances.
I could not artificially create these authentic experiences. I could not deliberately scaffold 'what to do when the wireless acts up'. There's nothing that I could plan that would make them WANT to skip special so they could make up lost time from the tech fail. Nor could I deliberately design an activity that would facilitate/ maintain that level of patience during a lengthy wireless malfunction.
Did I mention that they were doing all of this cooperatively, to boot? Yep. They were helping each other work through the problems. They were showing each other how to fix them. Did you hear that? I think that's the sound of 21st Century Skills!
Immediately upon logging in the kids couldn't access the internet. This has happened enough to us that they tried what they've learned to fix it ~ close& reopen, check if the computer needs to be restarted to finish installing updates, & changing the wirelesses connection. None of that worked. But they persevered. Finally, they shut down& restarted. That seemed to do the trick.
Everyday, when the kids are out of earshot, I joke that 1 smooth day on the netbooks would be nice. (I'd actually settle for an hour.) As annoying as it may be that these technological glitches turn a 1/2 hour into 2, it is quite marvelous to see how they function in these circumstances.
I could not artificially create these authentic experiences. I could not deliberately scaffold 'what to do when the wireless acts up'. There's nothing that I could plan that would make them WANT to skip special so they could make up lost time from the tech fail. Nor could I deliberately design an activity that would facilitate/ maintain that level of patience during a lengthy wireless malfunction.
Did I mention that they were doing all of this cooperatively, to boot? Yep. They were helping each other work through the problems. They were showing each other how to fix them. Did you hear that? I think that's the sound of 21st Century Skills!
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