Learning Lessons Through the Mishaps

I just finished a district training about communication and collaboration with a room full of teachers. We were using the Movenote app as a means of getting kids to communicate their learning using their mobile device. I’ve never experienced any problems with movenote but today was jam packed with them. In addition, we experienced a few other random hiccups. Here’s the laundry list along with the fix!

1. Teachers couldn’t log in to their google accounts (I did a reset password from my admin screen)
2. The movenote app wouldn’t allow direct login from the device. (We created the account online first and then it worked)
3. Teachers couldn’t get the camera recorder to work on chrome via Mac. (Refresh and hit “allow” for the camera to work)
4. Refreshed #3 as stated and the camera still would not work. (Close Chrome and go to firefox…known issue)
5. Teachers logged in to their google accounts but other accounts were logged into the browser. (Google “menu button”, Settings, disconnect account, delete user)
6. Created movenote would not send. (Go back and send using movenote in lieu of google)
7. No sound (Turn up the device volume)
8. Image keeps disappearing from movenote (Email to me and I’ll send to movenote)
9. Teacher is tech-frazzled…fried and done (Sit with, nurture and walk through the process)
10. Cannot get movenote to work (Discuss other options like simple device recording, another app or Tellagami)

In a matter of two hours, all of the issues above happened and even with these issues, teachers still walked away learning more than they bargained for. In their words, they learned that technology doesn’t always work and that patience can get through any issue. They also learned how to troubleshoot through situations themselves. Many of our fixes were foreign to them prior to today.

The most important idea that they walked away with, in my opinion and theirs, was that they should NEVER plan for the app but plan for the activity. I was told that today was the first time that they heard this and they talked about feeling so much better about technology knowing this.

We talked about the goal which was collaboration and communication. They could provide students with guidance or examples but allow them to choose the “how”. If they do that, many of the issues that we had today won’t be problems in their classrooms.

For me, that moment of realization was more powerful than any app or idea that they could learn.

My goals are to empower teachers and today I felt that we were a step closer to accomplishing that.