Join our domain
Today I was back on the road, doing the tech thing in one of our schools. As the “networked” model takes on increased importance due to our new fibreoptic capabilities, it only makes sense that the computers in our classrooms “join our domain”
So, I returned to the school where I began my local teaching career back in ’84, and went from classroom to classroom reconfiguring the machines to the latest network model. Kind of fun to revisit my old haunts and see how little things have changed. There are still a few (very few) of the staff from those times around, since the average career length of a teacher is about a quarter of a century. Lots of young faces, and I am not referring to the student body.
Same old, same old. Not enough English being spoken. Not enough attention being paid to the pedagogue (demagogue) in the front of the room. Not enough time to finish the task, since those school computers are no testimony to modern technology. I’d forgotten how long a reboot takes on an early P III with too little memory.
Still, the day went by quickly, and the next generation of students doesn’t look very different from the last. A few more MP3 players than before, and a few more piercings in evidence, but those are transient details. The bottom line is that “kids are kids are kids”, which means that the schools are doing the job we set for them.
Probably nobody will even notice that their network has a new interface. It doesn’t matter; the computers are incidental to educational process.
