Disappointment in Lutheran Teaching

What a bummer of an evening. I just found out that a local congregation I'd interviewed with can't afford a full-time technology coordinator...bummer. For the past 8 years, I've been doing double duty as a full-time classroom teacher AND full-time technology coordinator, never really being able to devote my full attention to one or the other. There was light at the end of my tunnel.

Now is one of those times when it's easy to feel sorry for yourself...No, really...It's not that hard at all!

Quick survey: How many Lutheran Schools in America can afford a full-time technology coordinator on staff???? To my knowledge, in the St. Louis area at least, only a handful. Now of those schools who can't afford to hire a full time instructional technology coordinator, do they really not have one because they can't afford it OR because they don't realize they NEED one???

I believe, that some of the most creative and dedicated teachers are in our Lutheran Schools. Imagine what their teaching would be like if we could get them the resources they needed? What if America's Lutheran schools had access to Internet 2 and could video conference with a German historian during the week of reformation with almost no interruption in bandwidth? (really, how much bandwith is the "real world" sucking up with streaming video and audio on a daily basis anyway??? Buffer what? :-) What if that same teacher was working collaboratively with another school to create a wiki about American Revolutionary battles? So what's stopping us?

I promised myself I would never let this blog fall prey to the old adage "Well, we'd like to do it, but we can't really afford it." I only say that now, because I've fallen victim to it.

Don't get me wrong, it is no one persons fault. It's just the way it is. As Dave Warlick put it in one of his podcasts from FETC in Florida: Isn't it sad that we have to beg for money (writing grants, fund-raising, matching gifts, etc.) to provide good learning tools for our students?


Money--love it...hate it...don't really care? It's what drives technology use in Lutheran education.

Or does it?

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