Conclusion
In the end, I was able to salvage my course with some mixed results. Students responded well to blogging and many took particular pride in individualizing their blog. The blogs served double-duty by giving students their own space to write and also creating a classroom community where online discussions often flowed over into the face-to-face classroom.
Yet, I cannot help but think about the ways this course suffered because of lack of institutional support. The students seemed well aware of the issues. Many would ask me why we were not simply in the labs. One particular student had a frustrating issue with Blogger that could have been easily resolved with me looking over her shoulder (it finally had to be remediated over a phone conference).
At the end of Charles Moran's article, he returned to the computer classroom, and I have as well. I do not miss the traditional classroom. Every moment seemed to be a reminder of all the tools I was missing. Ultimately, a low-tech classroom was simply an obstacle that could be overcome with a certain amount of flexibility and adaptation.
