I know I’ve blogged and tweeted about the wifi issues in my classroom.  A couple of weeks ago, I thought the issue was resolved when I got the magic blue light on the wifi booster in my classroom.  In fact, my students and I breath a sigh of relief each day when the blue light shines oh so brightly in my classroom.

Flash-forward to this past Monday.  The Internet in my classroom came to a screeching halt.  We had the blue light…but none of our devices could stay on the wifi network.  I troubleshooted all of the way through 1st period and partly into Period 2.  About 15 minutes into Period 2, I gave up.  I already lost two days of instruction when trying to use Google Classroom with my kiddoes several weeks ago.  I couldn’t afford to lose any more.

I switched around lesson plans.  Thursday’s lesson, now became Monday’s.  No problem.  It wasn’t ideal…and the order was now off, but at least the students were able to more forward.

The PR person from my district sent an email around 4PM informing us that the Internet was down district-wide due to automatic iOS updates throughout the district.

I didn’t buy it.  When Apple releases an new iOS, it doesn’t automatically update.  None of our iPads automatically updated to iOS on my campus.  We contributed nothing to the Internet break-down, but suffered none-the-less.

We took Tuesday off from the iPads.  My students participated in a TCI Skillbuilder Activity.  It was fun, it was engaging, but most of all, I loved hearing the conversations between my students.  Boy, some of them are sharp!  =D

And that brings us to Wednesday.  It was collaboration day.  My grade level colleague and I reworked our lesson in HaikuLearning.  We planned to introduce students to our LMS and have them complete two tasks:  a GoogleForm which would allow them to see peer responses and a discussion topic with peers from across all seven sections of World History.

Period 1 was able to create an account and complete Task 1.  Period 2?  Nothing.  The Internet crashed.  I mean, nothing, nada, zero, zippo.  I got the kiddoes started on Plan B while trying to see if the Internet stoppage went beyond my classroom and the blue light on the wifi booster.  It did.  I received a text message and phone call from a colleague (at a different school) who uses Chromebooks with his kids.  Another colleague had to take her students back to her room because her technology lesson was kaput with no Internet.

This is ridiculous.  I think the issue goes WAY beyond the supposed “auto iOS updates”…but whatever the case, it needs to be fixed.  And I’m not saying that because I simply want to use technology with my students.  I want my students to take their learning to the next level by using technology to demonstrate their understanding of historical content.  I have so much I want to share with them.  It’s like we’re all chomping at the bit.

It’s a small consolation to know the the district office is also feeling the pinch.  Payroll cannot answer questions about stipend pay because they cannot access their records.  Emails are going unsent, unread…unwritten.  A colleague at yet a different school wrote in an email, “I’m teaching like a cave man”…

Well said.