05.18.07
Teaching with Tech? Have a Backup Plan
I was presenting at a conference the other day (the Faculty Summer Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign) and all of my preparation and planning was foiled by some simple settings. When I arrived at the location (30 minutes early as is my usual practice) and connected my laptop, I couldn’t get the projector to take the input from my computer. After fiddling around with settings, etc., for 30 minutes or so, I decided to cut my losses on that and go to backup plan #1. Backup Plan #1 was my flash drive. Unfortunately, as is NOT my usual practice, I had neglected to copy my PowerPoint slides to the flash drive ahead of time. For whatever reason, I now could not get my computer to recognize my flash drive. Time for Backup Plan #2.
Backup Plan #2 was to use the Internet-connected computer in the room to access a web page I had set up with the html version of my PowerPoint slides. At first, I used Firefox as the browser to view the slides, only to find out that the html version of the presentation (created directly from PowerPoint) wasn’t totally compatible with Firefox. One of the participants in the session, who was following along on her computer, mentioned that she was viewing it fine in IE. So I switched to IE and we finished the session.
In Hawaii last fall I had to resort to Backup Plan #3, which was speaking from the printed handout. We had an earthquake that killed the power on Oahu for almost 24 hours and we were presenting without electricity. That experience made me very grateful for the backup plans.
My suggestion? Always have multiple levels of safety nets:
- Ask for the conference to supply a computer even if you intend to use your laptop
- Always have your flash drive with you and always have it loaded with your presentation and other materials you might need
- Have hard copies of handouts and even your slide presentation
A good presentation isn’t about the materials or the slides. It’s about the content. But you can get so frustrated by technical problems that you lose site of that and technical problems can kill your presentation. The same is true in the classroom. While technology is often viewed as a way to save time and effort, it often turns out that using it is more work. There certainly is risk involved. In the end its use can pay off, but don’t walk the tightrope without a safety net (or two).
