Computers have made both students’ and teachers’ lives much easier at PHS.  While lives are easier, sometimes they become more complicated when there are minor set backs.

PHS continually tries to keep the school computers up-to-date to protect students from some of the many things on the Internet, in doing so, this has caused more than a few problems in the classroom. School technology department and administrators are always continuing to keep the students safe from Internet trash. In doing so, the Wi-Fi at PHS has had a few inconvenient shut downs.  These shut downs/melt downs have made things a bit difficult for students and teachers alike. Dealing with an Internet crash is difficult for teachers because of how much the computers are used in daily activities. Some teachers find dealing with these mishaps harder than others. Like anyone else, there is a portion of teachers that find adapting to such things easy. Teachers that have a more structured form of teaching and have very little room in their daily planed activities find it more difficult to change or reschedule anything.

With the constant use of computers, almost every classroom has all of their lessons and plans on the Internet in Moodle. When the ‘PCSC’ Internet shuts down, teachers must must have an alternate plan. In order to keep the class on task and focused, teachers must always have a plan B. A back up plan that allows students to continue their lesson without using the computers or using only functions on the computer that are currently working. Most teachers have found a way to either continue on with their lesson or either find another task to keep students busy.

Mrs. Schmeltz said for her English class, “When the Internet goes down, we take out red dot books or hard copy textbooks and work offline.  We also use that time to hold group discussions.” Mr. Hatcher said, “… if students are working on a research project, I would have them use their books instead of an Internet search engine.”

Not only are there school-wide shut downs, but every once in a while an individual student has a computer malfunction. If a single student has an issue, teachers try their best to help that student. Mrs. Schmeltz said, “I try to read the computer’s instructions in the help menu.  If I can’t figure those out, I will try rebooting, or send a student to the library for help.” Most teachers at PHS try to follow these guidelines as well, keeping in mind the irritation students have when they are unable to complete their work. Sometimes due to computer malfunction, it is possible to loose schoolwork that was saved on the hard drive. Teachers must be lenient in such cases and often they allow that student extra time in order to complete the assignment. In other cases, if a student does not have access to his or her computer, a teacher must have paper copy of that assignment. However, this is not the best solution to this problem teachers try their best keeping students education as their number one priority.

In light of all of these possibilities teachers and students alike must keep an open mind and should always have a “plan B”.