The progress wheel
of Death!!!
I was prepared when I began teaching for the rise and fall of fire drills, bus drills, shortened days, assemblies, testing and the myriad of other things we teachers take in stride as we weave out lesson plans in ad out like experts on the slolem slopes of schooling.
So it is fair to say that in the early days of online ed, I loved blended learning and full online teaching for its capability of weathering even the craziest day. Students and I could learn despite the wildly variant schedules of the world.
However, we have now reached a point where the capability and the technology are not in stride. Where the enthusiasm of unbridled learning meets the limitations of the physical world.
I am talking about LAG, the time span between click and functionality. Nothing messes with the online or blended learner or teacher's day more. We get a cup of coffee, text a friend, watch a show, do the laundry and yet still the progress daisy winks at us, smiling its evil smile, thwarting our every move.
Sometimes, we blame the lag on our local tech, so we switch computers, move to a different internet connection, switch from wifi to hardwire. The wheel still turns.
We call tech support, log out and back in, shut down and restart. The wheel still turns.
We minimize the process, simplify the plan, call tech support again, who can never replicate our experience. The wheel still turns.
In fact Lag has lasted so long that I could have purchased seed and dirt, planted and grown my own real daisy.
and somewhere in the middle of all of this certain cell phone companies have the gall to argue publicly on TV that they are the fastest connection ever. So I try using my phone browser, but the wheel still turns.
of Death!!!
I was prepared when I began teaching for the rise and fall of fire drills, bus drills, shortened days, assemblies, testing and the myriad of other things we teachers take in stride as we weave out lesson plans in ad out like experts on the slolem slopes of schooling.
So it is fair to say that in the early days of online ed, I loved blended learning and full online teaching for its capability of weathering even the craziest day. Students and I could learn despite the wildly variant schedules of the world.
However, we have now reached a point where the capability and the technology are not in stride. Where the enthusiasm of unbridled learning meets the limitations of the physical world.
I am talking about LAG, the time span between click and functionality. Nothing messes with the online or blended learner or teacher's day more. We get a cup of coffee, text a friend, watch a show, do the laundry and yet still the progress daisy winks at us, smiling its evil smile, thwarting our every move.
Sometimes, we blame the lag on our local tech, so we switch computers, move to a different internet connection, switch from wifi to hardwire. The wheel still turns.
We call tech support, log out and back in, shut down and restart. The wheel still turns.
We minimize the process, simplify the plan, call tech support again, who can never replicate our experience. The wheel still turns.
In fact Lag has lasted so long that I could have purchased seed and dirt, planted and grown my own real daisy.and somewhere in the middle of all of this certain cell phone companies have the gall to argue publicly on TV that they are the fastest connection ever. So I try using my phone browser, but the wheel still turns.
The wheel is green, black, white, blue, sometimes accompanied
by a green bar style progress, which can sometimes put me in fits when it progresses to finished only to reset to 0 before starting the next process. Some wheels give me time estimates, which confusingly count down, but then suddenly count up. This may take 30 seconds or 57 minutes to download.
And Heaven forbid I should get impatient and click before the load completion has occurred, because I will either lock things up and have to reload from scratch, or I will double the processes without solving a thing.
by a green bar style progress, which can sometimes put me in fits when it progresses to finished only to reset to 0 before starting the next process. Some wheels give me time estimates, which confusingly count down, but then suddenly count up. This may take 30 seconds or 57 minutes to download.And Heaven forbid I should get impatient and click before the load completion has occurred, because I will either lock things up and have to reload from scratch, or I will double the processes without solving a thing.
Whats a multi-tasker to do when her hamster dies?
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