#132 ubiquitous

Yesterday's nugget  (see blog #108) for our staff meeting was a demonstration of the spectacular 80" flat screen in our new technology center.  Our tech guy used a program that allowed the screen to turn into a plain white board, or have a calendar or graph outlines as background that he could "write" on, or project the computer image onto the screen and have the ability to write over that or do any number of amazing things.  The picture was crystal clear; the sound was theatre quality; you could print in color directly from the board -- and we were all wide-eyed thinking about the possibilities of using this new space...

once we actually got started seeing the demonstration.  The first 10 minutes were spent watching the tech guy try to show how his wireless worked from his iPad to project on the screen (it never did) or to do several other things that he was unable to actually show us.

Later in the day, I was in another meeting where the wireless would not connect to the computer.  We called audio visual support who suggested that we reboot the computer "because the same thing happened with that machine earlier."  After an additional ten minutes wasted of fiddling around and trying multiple things, someone had the great idea of unhooking the Ethernet cord from the fancy new phone and hooking it into the computer -- and then it worked.  The meeting began as if this was the natural order of events.  

Why do people have such a high tolerance (or is it expectation) that technology may not perform as planned?  On one hand, if I was a teacher, I would be enamored with the new equipment as a curriculum enhancement.  But could I depend on it?  The professional tech support people were involved in both of my examples, and they were unable to assist in a timely manner.  For every presentation or lesson plan, do we really need to spend the time and resources having a Plan B ready?  

Young people seem to have built-in expectations that using technology is a problem-solving experiment.  If one thing doesn't work, it is intuitively natural for them to try something else and continue with options until it is functional.  I think they are satisfied with the process as long as it works in the end.  Younger and younger people expect to have ubiquitous technology; thus older and older people need to become adept at its use.  

Having a reliable technological infrastructure is going to become (is already?) as essential as a consistent electrical system.  When you flip the switch or turn on a lamp, you never expect to tinker to achieve functionality.  You don't hear excuses about the grid being overloaded or the switch not being compatible with the lamp you are trying to power.  You expect mindless operation of electricity everywhere.  As a citizenry, as well as in our organizations, we need to invest in achieving pervasive technological performance in the same way.

-- beth triplett
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