in the 5th week

Somehow, it’s already the 5th week of the semester. Shall I count the technology fails so far?

• In week 1, approximately 1/3 of the Hist 100 students could not access the wiki in which we were building the timeline. Each one emailed me to get help. D2L folks had encouraged me to host the wiki in D2L because they would support it. They did not support it. 1/3 of 120 students equals 40 emails.
• Day 1 in Hist 480, I couldn’t figure out which button to press to lower the screen.
• Hist 480 had a blog fail. I’ve migrated the blog to a better platform, again, one that the university does not “support”. My students are happier now.
• I can’t seem to play a song at the beginning of Hist 100 for “name that tune” without showing my screen. The students name that tune because they see its name right there in iTunes.
• Ramnet. Only works sometimes.
• Oh, did I forget to mention I still don’t have a computer.
• My students keep refusing to answer my Zotero group invitation.
• At my first department meeting, a rep from Academic Computing showed us how to use the Smart Board. My new colleagues cracked wise about how Smart it was. The trainer had a few technology fails of her own.
• I have a CRT monitor that takes up a good portion of my desk space. One day while teaching 480, I brought my students to my office because the Ramnet wasn’t working in the classroom. They laughed at my monitor.

So, that’s my career teaching digital history so far.