When the computers go down!

The beginning of the 2009 year at Manaia Kindergarten, began at first with a bolt of fresh air. We had lovely sunny days and 8 new families at kindergarten. Our roll call topped 23 after a week or so of low numbers. It took just a day for new children to begin to explore the digital world. The cameras came out and newbies were recording their first few days through photography... photographing their first impressions of mat time, photographing the environment and new friends, photographing interests from home and sharing the photos at Kindergarten.

And then the computers went down...

Our two computers we use to create movies, upload to the blog, and email - just crashed.

I felt like we had lost a limb - In the light of our ICT project and new families excited by the possibilities, the lack of two vital computers seemed crippling.

Fortunately at Manaia we do have more than two computers and the laptops were shuffled around to accommodate. Some movies were uploaded on home computers, and we stumbled forward.

But the experience brought interesting reflections. I 'needed' to solve the problems that arose - loading photos so that we could access them again in a logical manner when the computers returned (this took a week), then re-downloading software such as Photostory and Comic Life, discovering, finding, reloading missing plug-ins, sorting codec's (which I still don't understand - never needed them on my mac)... As a problem solver I found it hard at first to move on. If you have ever watched somegreybloke, here he is expressing some of the frustration I felt.. "The Internets gone down" (warning: some inappropriate content - the first minute or two is quite relevant!! PS a new window/tab will open)

You'll be pleased to hear the children at Manaia Kindergarten continued to learn!! A downturn in technology did not equate to a downturn in learning. But it did occur to me - as education becomes more and more entwined in technology - what will happen when the computer/internet goes down? Will WE be able to switch off and learn/teach the old way? Is it even possible!! And can technology cause mass disruption in an education setting? Or is that just scare mongering?

Check out the possibilities via this news caste


- and how this may be played out for young professionals or not so professionals (ok - prehaps a little over the top! warning content may offend)
Certainly a far cry from beginning 2009 with Wisdom!!

These scenarios are good for a laugh - however have you experienced significant downtime with technology in your education setting? Are the above questions relevant? What are your thoughts?