Hot Topics: 2013

This was going to be a nice blogpost on how much fun we're having.  I was going to explain how the Institute is giving me so many different ideas about how to get students engaged and interested.  However, this is clearly from a couple of days ago because my post has changed.

My post is now about how you have to be flexible when using technology.  We're talking Mary Lou Retton levels of flexibility (or Gabrielle Douglas if you're not old enough to remember Retton).

So, I took videos with my iPad and it wouldn't upload them.  Grrrrr.  It told me to get a Google-plus account.  So I tottled off and got Google plus.  However, when I tried to log in, the ap sent me to this nice little help page about how it couldn't help me.  Honestly!  It turns out that my email is an account managed by my district, and my district has managed me out of Google plus.

Okay, take two.  You Tube.  I've never used You Tube, so I go and try and sign up, and the hotel network kicks me off.  I curse some, do a little frustration dance, and then try again.  And again, it kicks me off.

I'm starting to feel cursed at this point, but I call the hotel technical support and get helpfully told that the iPad 2 has a directional network receiver???? (at this point the guy could have told me it had a Martian doohicky made of rainbow dust and unicorn feces, and I wouldn't have the technical know-how to disagree).  He did, however, offer to set me up so that the hotel network would stop asking me to sign in again.  The network still goes up and down like a demented clown on a pogo stick, but skipping the login helps.

At this point, I go to bed.

Clearly, I did get a video embedded.  Kind of.  But I guess the point is that if you expect technology to be easy, you are in for a very rude awakening.  Sure, it makes life easier in the long run, but in the short run, it's a giant pain in the mikta.

Bonus nerd points if you know what that means.


Lyn Cannaday
Greenway High School
Phoenix, AZ