Can I Teach Without Technology?

I have a recurring dream, or rather a nightmare: I arrive to my classroom for the first day of the semester only to find I am in a “dumb” classroom. I look around. There are blackboards crowding every wall, lined by nubs of chalk. The room is already filled with students; they stare expectantly as I fumble around. No computer. No projector. No overhead. No idea what I’m going to do. Reluctantly, I pick up a piece of chalk and begin to write something illegible on the board. The chalk screeches like a harpy and I wake.

Ok, so I just made that up; I don’t really have that nightmare. But I do think about those unfortunate souls lost to the rooms whose contents contain only enough wiring to turn the lights on. I mourn for them and pray for myself – pray that I’ll never be in their situation.

The TAs from Dr. Barton’s 656 (Teaching College English) course last semester talked at length about the divide between tech-enabled and tech-disabled classrooms. My colleagues’ consensus seemed to be that teaching in a tech-disabled environment was doable; the instructor only needs to prepare more: have more copies made, prepare more transparencies, find hard copies of pictures to show, et cetera. But not me.

I hate to be pessimistic, but I’m not sure I could enjoy teaching in that environment. I’m sure I could teach in that environment, of that I’m positive. However, the thought of not being able to employ the technologies my students are intimate with, which I use to engage them in productive ways, makes me cower in terror. Of course, there are the sayings: “every obstacle is an opportunity in disguise”; and “nothing breeds creativity like necessity.”

I suppose these sayings should comfort me and uplift my soul. And were I actually in the predicament of having to teach without technology, they might. Unfortunately for me, I am an excessive worrywart; and I cannot let sleeping dragons go un-prodded. So the question remains until a situation arises that forces me to an answer. Inevitably, that time will be when I am looking for jobs and unable to own any preference.