JBB’s Final Thoughts Episode 31: Bad UI & How It’s Hurting Tech Usage in the Classroom

Two examples of bad user-interface design that can easily derail tech usage in the classroom. You think it’s “meh,” now multiply the pain by 25 unhappy and vocal students on an hourly basis and let’s see how “meh” you feel by the end of the day.

MP3 Version: 

Enjoy and please subscribe to my YouTube channel or subscribe to all of my blog posts (scroll to the bottom of this page, click the red FOLLOW button in the “Follow blog via email” box).

Please Subscribe:

Resources:

Show Notes:

JBB’s Final Thoughts Episode 31: Bad UI & How It’s Hurting Tech Usage in the Classroom

Joe Bustillos, here. When I starting teaching over 20-years ago no one had to coax me into using technology, first to manage my classrooms, then to create curriculum and learning experiences that wouldn’t be possible without the technology. But I was and still am resistant to the dog & pony show use of tech because it might be a good demo but contributes nil to actual learning. I’ve been doing this for a while and sometimes I cannot believe the choices some software developers make that are just flat out user hostile and totally get in the way, such that it “encourages” teachers to not use the technology.

I’ve been using Learning Management Systems, LMSs, since they’ve been available. An LMS is basically a website where I can post curriculum and where students can go to do the assignments. My belief in LMSs began with the notion that by putting the whole assignment on a website, students could interact with the material without having to wait for the slowest person in the classroom and could work as quickly as they might want. That was the theory at least. Alas, it tends to be a hell of a lot more complicated than anticipated and it doesn’t help when the software developers do some of the following things that I’m going to demonstrate. Speaking of which, because of the following demos, as much as I love that some of you might be downloading the audio version of this podcast, I would suggest viewing the video version on my website or via my YouTube channel.

How Many Steps to Upload a File… (tech demo)

Et Tu, Google Docs? (tech demo)

Thank you for spending this time with me at JBB’s Final Thoughts. If you want to continue to participate in my outer monologue you can subscribe to my blog at http://jbbsfinalthoughts.com, scroll to the bottom of the page, click on the FOLLOW button where it says “Follow Blog via Email” and enter your email address. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel, just search for JBB’s Final Thoughts (and make sure it doesn’t auto-correct to “jobs final thoughts”… damn auto-correct!). Catch you later, enjoy.