I have read through these posts with a combination of delight and angst. I am the band teacher (and MS football coach and one section of technology) who is trying to convince the school board to do an upgrade for the first time in almost 35 years. The comments about learning new technology along with all of the other aspects of teaching are spot on. Our small district has 13 new programs this year that we are trying to grasp. I have a very good relationship with technology, but at 58, the
Yamaha digital mixer we have has way too many levels for me to feel comfortable with. I don't even like Microsoft Access, I want the old Microsoft Works Database. I can make a lot happen with the
mixer, but not to the depths it is capable. Yes, I am the ONLY person in the district that can operate it above a rudimentary
level (just the other day I got a
call to fix a problem because we had set a user defined
preset to be a shut down and they couldn't get any sound out because it was in shut down mode) and the only one that can even log in as administrator on it.
I also have had enough experience to know that there are people that have NO business tackling technology, their skills lie in other areas.
So now in the process of shopping for a new
console, I absolutely believe that the
Element is going to be too advanced for most if not all of the potential users in our district, including students. We are installing a
preset box to "dumb down" operations for general use and will hopefully be able to really learn the functions of whatever
console we end up with. Being a small district, we don't have a dedicated theater person or anyone with any kind of background in theater tech. Consequently, it falls on the shoulders of people like me to step up and try to do something.
I joined this forum to learn what I can and then bring it back to my school. Thanks for the information thus far and looking forward to more in the future!