I have not had any especially difficult experiences with technology, at least nothing that stands out as ‘the worst.’ However, multiple small negative experiences continue to occur that involve technology simply not working as it should. I liken these experiences to relying on a car: I get in the car, expect it to start, assume the engine and other necessary components will function, and predict that I will arrive at my planned destination on time. I have not allowed extra time for the trip in case the car does not work, but I can quickly pivot to an alternative if needed.

On numerous occasions, technology has not properly functioned and has delayed an exam or ruined a planned class activity. When the wifi in a classroom has a glitch, students cannot sign on to Canvas, cannot access their timed exam, and their stress levels rapidly rise. Even worse is when the wifi is interrupted mid-exam and they are kicked off of Canvas. I greatly dislike relying on Canvas and wifi for online exams, but it is a necessary step in preparing nursing students for their online NCLEX licensing exam.

Planned classroom activities have been disrupted by problems with wifi, film audio, malfunctioning classroom projectors, or site links that are temporarily broken. Zoom has been another frustration, and even on days when it works perfectly, the slight delay that occurs every time someone speaks is annoying. It causes students to be unsure when they should start talking, or they miss the beginning of what was said. Switching between screen share and the view of little heads in boxes takes time and is an awkward interruption.

When these problems occur, I feel frustrated every single time. It does not seem fair to have such reliance on an unreliable aspect of teaching and learning. Since my role is to model flexibility and composure for students who will enter a very stressful profession, I take a deep breath and work to quickly resolve the problem. Students can usually sign out of Canvas, restart their computer, and log back into the exam. Occasionally, I have to send a panicked student over to IT to fix the connection so they can finish their exam. If I cannot get the sound working, or cannot access a resource through a link for a class activity, we move on to another way to explore the content. Despite my frustration, I am a nurse. One motto in this profession is that nobody died today, and everything else is fixable. I am accustomed to finding workarounds because they are a necessity in healthcare. However, I continue to feel frustrated because I was never trained to manage and troubleshoot technology, and its dysfunction interrupts student learning.

From these multiple small experiences with technology failures, I take away the assumption that I cannot rely on technological tools for teaching. I always need to have a back-up plan as an alternative way to achieve the teaching goals for that day. If my car stopped working, I could call someone for a ride to work and deal with the car problem later. However, tech problems occur in the midst of an exam or a class, and there is no opportunity to delay a fix. Therefore, I prefer asynchronous options for incorporating technology into teaching.