In the Classroom

Learning about all the technology that is possible to use in a classroom is very exciting and opens many opportunities to your classroom, but I still don't think I want to center my teaching around it. In the classrooms that I have been in there are active boards, many computers,document cameras and some type of controller that hooks into the main computer that all the students use to answer questions (I'm not sure what it is called). And it seems like half the time, something isn't working and can't be used. For example, in the 6th grade that I'm in, the teacher uses a math program called accelerated math. Each student works individually and at their own pace on extra math work, when the students finish a section, they put their answers on a scan tron, and scan it into the computer where it is put in a data base, and then out prints what the need next. This program has helped a lot in the classroom...when it is working. At the beginning of the year, all the computers were up-graded to vista, and it turns out that the math program isn't compatible, so there was un-installing and a few other things, which took a few days, so the students were behind. This has also happened with other tech equipment which makes me a little weary on totally relying on technology to teach a lesson.

I know it can be a wonderful assets, I just worry that if it doesn't work, it will ruin the whole lesson.
I also believe there needs to be more training in using all the technology that is put in the classroom. It's changed all the time, and sometimes the teachers don't even know it, they just come in a do it, leaving the teachers in the dark, and I hate to say it, but the older teachers that I have been around are very much in the dark with all the technology. They are given all these different things and not really getting enough instruction on how to use them, so they just sit their collecting dust.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, I'm not so sure all the time about technology. Much of it is very exciting, but unless someone is willing to sit down with me, or give me the option of going to multiply classes about the new technology, I'm not going to know how to use it, and I also want to learn how to trouble shoot problems, because if it can happen, its going to happen and most likely, right in the middle of a lesson. I want to use all the cool technology, but I'm not sure how it's going to all fit in.