Computers not as ubiquitous as people think.

There is this pervasive idea that technology is everywhere and that somehow, instructors who don't use the best and brightest tech are somehow bad teachers or who aren't doing everything they can to help their students. Every time there is a new invention, or new educational theory, there will be an insurgence of people and professional organizations telling people that they must use the new product. If, as should be predicted, people aren't as interested in the new concepts as they should be, they are labeled as "resistant to change."

I am no Luddite, in fact, I consider myself a very tech savvy teacher. Still, as an educator who does try to keep up on the technological curve and apply it in class, I am constantly confronted with the familiar disappointment with technology that either doesn't work the way it should, or doesn't work at all.

First of all, it may be true that all homes now days have a computer, this does not mean that all people have access to that computer. There are dozens of reasons why students might not have the ability to use a computer whenever I decide to assign them something to do on it. Poorly maintained computers are sometimes the culprit, but so are electronics hogging siblings who won't relinquish control. Sometimes parents have very strict computer rules, or, as I have actually seen before, religious objections to too much computer use.

Of course, there is always the frustrating experience of having that one website completely shut down the exact moment you need it the most.

Cellphones, that incredible computer at all students have living in their pocket, are subject to the same problems many of the times. Those crazy apps and 3G networks stop working all of the time, sometimes for no apparent reason.

Add all of these problems to the one classic problem that is consistent electronics is expensive to maintain.

Now, I can hear you say "Mr. Reflective Educator, this is why you need a plan B. If you have a backup plan, everything works just fine." I would say that this idea is completely true except that now instead of three lessons I need to plan, now I have six lessons. While I am spending so much time keeping up with modern trends in technology, I might not have time to create a plan B.

Sometimes it is just easier to use a textbook, since that is one type if technology that rarely fails.

Possibly the worst part of it all is that in twenty or thirty years, some young, new teacher is going to look down on you for not embracing some new, unforeseen technology that you don't quite understand, but that the new teachers organization endorses. They'll look at you, and all of your years of experience, and call you resistant to change and old fashioned.