Are schools relying too much on technology?

I was in the kitchen, focused on cooking my scrambled eggs.

The anguished, mournful sobbing of my oldest son broke my concentration and instantly claimed my attention.

He had worked on a pass / fail project late into the night as part of his first semester finals. He was due to present it in his third hour class today.

Prior to leaving for school, he had checked the website where the required project had been completed only to discover that there was no sign of his work.

It was gone.

Through his tears he swore a blue streak that he had saved his work. His mom had seen it before she went to bed. But this morning it was not there, and there was no time to replicate it before his class. He is a conscientious kid who strives for great grades. If he says he saved his work, I believe him.

I hugged him, and encouraged him to relax and compose himself.

He powered up his mom's laptop and browsed to the website. Lo and behold, his project was there.

I saw it, his mom saw it again. If it wasn't there when it was time to present it at least he had the testimony of two adults that the work was complete and had been there.

Where did it go for those those few minutes (that I'm sure were an eternity to him)?

This isn't the first time he has had issues with homework disappearing from one of these websites. Each time there is an issue, whether it's passwords that stop working or completed assignments vanishing, tears are sure to follow.

I work in a technology industry. I know that computers only do what you tell them to do. The most common computer error is a PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair) error. But I too have experienced passwords changing, saved work mysteriously being lost, and generally strange phenomenon occurring when using a computer or website.

It happens.

But... to give a student a pass / fail end-of-semester-final-exam-assignment that relies on the performance of a third party website... well, to me, that's just wrong.

Not just for my child either.

I know it's 2015, and nearly all households have internet access and a computer. But what about the homes that don't? What about the homes that don't have a technologically savvy mom or dad? What do they do? How do they cope when this kind of thing happens?

There must be a better way.

*** Update ***

Once at school, my son was unable to access the website where his work was stored. Obviously my son was distraught, and the tears were flowing again. One of the school's IT guys was engaged for assistance. He was able to get my son logged in, but his work was not there.

Great.