I'm writing this post from my iPhone because our entire school network is out. As you can imagine this has caused quite a whirlwind of emai....I mean phone calls and visits to our office to let us know. But for some, this comes as a fatal blow to the lesson plans of the day and can cause a lot of stress on educators (and students with homework deadlines...see my last post on that topic!) and rightfully so. I've always found it interesting to see why certain faculty get stressed during network outages. Is it email related, Facebook, blog posting or homework turn in that has been thwarted for the day or something else. To my great surprise I found a number of faculty who were completely unaware of the network outage. Perhaps those bound by the bonds of lecture driven classes will never understand the stress and are quite content with that avoidance strategy.
What I hope educators will gain from this is the unforeseen opportunity it can give them in their classes. A rare opportunity to stray away from the curriculum ( or how you teach it!), even if it is for a brief moment, and create something special in their classes that students will remember. Perhaps a more personal moment to get to know each other and learn what is transpiring in a students life. These valuable insights can have an amazing impact on your teaching and make the learning process so much more authentic...and fun... to your students.
In any case, it is important to remember the our mission as educators is to create the most authentically engaging classroom experience possible (especially true in private school!). So network be damned! Class will continue and we will go forth once more into the breach my friends because class will and must go on. Learning does not stop, even for the Internet!
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