You are right, it's a pain. Stick to one kind of software that is well supported by your institution. Use and adjust, if necessary, modules and data sets that colleagues have developed and used on students already. Know what you want students to get out of the exercise and make sure they get it by demanding that they analyze and write about their results.

Yes and you need to take this into consideration. You need good and dependable technical assistance.

There is an interesting story here. I learned computing with a mainframe and punch cards and then moved to terminals and now to PC's. It was a challenge every step of the way for me to master technology while teaching a full load of four courses. I started by using what I knew and moved it into the classes I taught as I learned it. Even my non-science class had to do a spreadsheet assignment after I learned to use spreadsheets. I told them to find a buddy to help them. That is what I did. I asked my husband lots of questions and applied spreadsheets to our mutual research project as soon as I could. We published a paper using the data analysis we did with that first spreadsheet, SuperCalc3. I pushed spreadsheets into the p-chem course as soon as I had moderate skill. Why not. It is like any other instrument you can't wait till it is perfected or your skill is perfected. It is experimentation to include it.

I took workshops and still go to them to get ideas from others more experienced than I and less experienced than I. I recently went to one here on campus and learned what the Education folks are asking their students to do. Very interesting. they conduce a whole class through a discussion board even if the students are in the computer lab at the same time. This gives them the means to archive all comments and reflect on them. Sometimes the best learning is through reflection. Such reflection is similar to you and I here discussing IT. You are forcing me to reflect and that is good.

Again how do I know, ...by observation of student behavior.

Do I still feel frustrated. Boy do I, especially when I have too little time and the html formatting is not doing what I expect it to do. I feel overwhelmed all the time. However, I am too busy to dwell on this. I just push and push to learn what I need to know to continue. I ask lots of questions and get help from the wonderful IT staff we have here on campus.

Observation helps to. Imitate excellence when you see it.