Monday
Jan072013
First world educational problems
Monday, January 7, 2013 at 06:26AM Ever caught yourself complaining:
This (I hope) tongue-in-cheek list, created by Australians Stuart Kearney and Eric Stern and available at <http://www.firstworldproblems.biz/>, started me wondering if a first-world-education-problem list might be needed as well. I'll start...
- My Smartboard gets constantly out of alignment.
- I only have a laptop and really need a tablet.
- My classroom computers don't have the latest OS.
- YouTube/Facebook/EBay/Grading program/computer is really slow today.
- I can't get my kids to turn off their smartphones during my lecture.
- We don't have enough electrical plug-ins in my classroom.
- My digital textbook isn't interactive.
- Only one person at a time can download the library's e-books.
- Wearing a microphone makes my neck sore.
- Another online test?
- Sometimes it takes over two hours before someone can look at my tech problem.
- I have to manually enter each student instead of importing them?
- There's no specialized app for this website.
- There are way too many tweeters to follow and blogs to read.
- It doesn't run Flash.
- This program is just too complicated to learn.
- It's a nuisance to keep the kids off Facebook when online.
- BYOD? Three of my kids don't have a device.
- It's a pain to keep my online gradebook and webpage current.
- The battery only lasts six hours.
- I have 22 kids in my class this year.
- I have two study halls in my library.
- My raise was only 2% this year.
- My health insurance doesn't cover liposuction.
OK, your turn.
I am not big on New Year's resolutions, but if I were to make one it would be simply to be more grateful in 2013. Grateful to live where I live (cold weather and all); grateful to have a job that challenges me; grateful for a healthy and loving family; grateful for having so few real problems that I can indulge in first-world problems now and then.
Happy New Year.
Image source <http://boscoconnect.blogspot.com/>
Reader Comments (4)
I'm going to add a sadder first world problem: we're losing to the third world.
A couple weeks ago I met with an Egyptian colleague (teacher and technologist), who shared that her school's classes average around 24 students, and they have had 1:1 student:computer ratio for years now. While her country is discovering the messiness that accompanies new democracies, they are investing heavily and consciously in K-16 education because, as a nation, they have discovered the link between education and national prosperity energized by open and free-wheeling communication technologies.
Sigh.
HI Bill,
Quite an irony. I wish the importance of education rather than ideology was wide-spread in the Middle East (and elsewhere.)
We certainly have both first and third world schools right within the US as well. I know I forget that myself sometimes.
Always appreciate your comments. Thank you.
Doug
"The huge TV screens that are all over campus never have the information I need."
"My school's 25 MBPS speed is so slow"
Good ones, Kenn.