Stupid Stupid Laptops

I’m technologically adept–mostly.  For the past few days, however, my PC patience has been tried.

 

My school has a few “mobile computer labs”: wheeled carts filled with laptops.  They’re supposed to be an easy way to get computers in the hands of our students, and they do a great job of that.  What the students are able to actually do with them, however, is another case, making for a pretty stressful day.

 

Each class has the same problems in the same order:

1.) Some kids don’t know their passwords, requiring a trip to the IT guy, who’s always hard to track down

2.) Half of the laptops can’t get on the server.  Students flip out.

3.) Student flash drives met with hardware installation prompts that never seem to go away.  Can’t save work and take it home.

4.) Every popular email site is blocked by the county.

5.) Handful of computers freeze up when trying to save work.

 

Look, I know my school is extremely lucky to even have computers.  I know teachers whose technology consists of an overhead projector that’s shared among the entire department.  I feel bad whining about it, but it’s just such a frustrating ordeal, more trouble than it’s worth.  90% of my time is spent fiddling with ethernet cables, switching out computers, and assuring students that patience is a virtue best shared with a Windows machine.  I don’t have a lot of time to , you know, teach.