Teaching online can be rewarding, but ...

Here is a relatively fair and balanced take on teaching online. Of course, there are a few places where I disagree with the author. But, by and large, a balanced piece.

This term, I am realizing how technological glitches can affect stuff .... (Bill, you do not need to do anything here; things are happening, but a tad slowly. That is all.)

The good news is that I got a new laptop. I asked for a built-in webcam, so that I would not have to use an external camera to record my video clips and, yes, the new laptop has that. The relatively bad news is that ever since I got the new laptop--was it four or five weeks ago--things started unraveling, and finally I lost all access to the network drives, printers and, worst of all, the computer wants to connect to the H: drive even when I am home!

So, the first couple of weeks I did not do videos because I did not want to struggle with the old laptop that was wheezing like it would die any minute. And for almost three weeks now, totally different kinds of problems. Problems that are proving to be quite a challenge to our tech people.

So, this is what I think: I am relatively tech-okay. Perhaps significantly above average tech fluency compared to what might be the norm for a middle-aged university faculty! So, I have been dealing with the problems without harassing the tech people. (I wonder if they think that I am harassing them!!!) On the other hand, imagine if a less than tech-fluent faculty were teaching online, and such problems came up.

Which then makes me wonder whether there should be some kind of 'if you are below this height" metaphor that needs to be in place? What would be an example? When I am on campus, I could not connect to the "P:" drive, which is where my web pages are. So, what was my work around? Using our FTP (Filezilla) to connect to the drive from home. I just did not engage in web page editing when I was on campus. On the other hand, last term when a colleague told me how frustrating it was for him to go back and forth with a USB drive, and how he sometimes forgets it, I told him that he might be better off using Filezilla and demonstrated it. He was impressed, and commented that he wished he had known about it earlier.

Teaching online, the way I understand and practice it, requires a constant learning of new technology. I am all for learning new stuff--if I find something that fits with my teaching style, I use it. But, I don't ever use technology for the sake of using that fancy technology. I am not sure though whether non-users, and maybe even some users, understand how much such constant learning is required ..... or, am I using an incorrect framework?