If you are an educator like I am, then you have probably attended numerous conferences, presentations and forums that revolve around technology and its place in education.

The majority of these professional development opportunities have provided me with excellent opportunities to learn new ideas, network with other educators, and generally discuss the role of technology in education. But some of these presentations have been downright frustrating to me, as they were unprofessional, outdated, and downright useless to me as an educator.

Let me give you an example. In one such presentation, I heard a speaker (a former IBM employee) who tried to wow the audience about how fast technology is changing. But this technology expert could not figure out how to make his prehistoric laptop work with the projector (ironically, a Mac saved the day).

Of course, I would have cut him some slack, but his presentation wasn’t much better than his equipment. He simply threw out useless statistics and line art graphs (without many references) intended to shock us. It is no use to be scared of the future (and the present) without being given any ideas of how to cope with it.

And I have seen enough of these bogus presentations that I am reminded of PCU (1994) – a clever movie where all the students at Port Chester University (a.k.a. Politically Correct University) rally behind any popular cause just because it is the thing to do. It seems that many speakers are simply jumping on the tech bandwagon – they are like politicians, as they only seem to expose problems instead of offering solutions.

To me, these presentations are just digi-peeves. They are useless distractions that try to define problems with technology, and do not generally offer solutions or ways we can properly utilize it in education.

In the next few weeks, I will share more of my digi-peeves. What are some of yours?