Technology has become a necessity at Marlborough, so things go a little askew whenever something malfunctions. That’s exactly what happened when the School recently experienced three technological problems on campus within one week, much to the dismay of Director of Academic and Administrative Technology Stuart Posin.
The first complication occurred on Sept. 10, when the Internet servers run by Fire Line malfunctioned. The backup line picked up some of the slack, but the connection was still very slow. Faculty members were thus asked to limit non-essential video viewing on sites like Netflix and YouTube until the Internet had returned to its normal speed.
On Sep. 12, phone lines were down due to a problem with Time Warner Cable, leaving us with no backup.
On Sep. 14, Posin sent out another e-mail to faculty proclaiming technical difficulties yet again.
“Believe me when I say that I am sorry to send my third “down” email this week,” he wrote. Whipple Hill, the website that is responsible for our Marlborough site, was not operating correctly.
Many teachers find that such technological failures get in the way of their teaching. “It can be frustrating. If the lesson plan involves technology, you have to switch gears instead of doing what you planned.” English instructor Chris Brinsley said.
Foreign languages instructor Loles Arroniz-Jones said that though the technological problems are inconvenient to both students and teachers, the ARC team does everything in their power to resolve complications as fast as possible. “They are very proactive about fixing the problem, so I have no complaints,” she said.
Besides the inconvenience, malfunctioning technology is also a hazard in an emergency situation. Luckily, Marlborough uses a separate Emergency Use Service called Blackboard Connect, which is like a phone tree and contains student and faculty emergency contact information that is updated on a daily basis. In the case of an emergency, someone could send calls, texts and e-mails through the Blackboard Connect server.
Although it seems as though the Internet can be unreliable, Marlborough’s Internet service provides us with a stable signal 99.99% of the time. So when those dreaded words “Unable to Connect” pop up on your computer screen, hang tight because chances are the Internet will be up and running again within the hour!
