Technical Difficulties

"We've got a barn. Let's put on a show."

A young man in an old movie said this line with such enthusiasm that's it become a part of our vernacular. Unfortunately, his shows didn't always go as planned.

Such was the case with my use of technology in the last 24 hours.

Our classrooms are equipped with wifi and powerpoint projectors. There's not a lot of hoopla in getting them to work. Press two buttons and you're good to go.

Lights on the other hand are another matter. No matter what we did, the lighting in the room didn't work. Too dark to write. Too light to see the projection. I had a backup plan and used it but technology made for some painful digging out of the hole.

Last night . . . after a 9 to 5 day of classes, driving across town for a meeting, participating in yet two more hours of training, I started what I thought would be a couple of hours on homework. I'd already worked on my handout. I was just a few downloads and printed pages away from bedtime.

HA!!

The downloads were either on my Mac using a "borrowed" wifi connection and moved via jump drive to the PC where I could print. Or incredibly slow (as in how long it takes for the dentist to drill your tooth) on the dial-up tied to the PC. The printer made the carefully sought out color photos look like the line drawings of a 7-year-old. And four hours into the process I had a less than satisfactory lesson plan and original documents to take to class.

The show would go on but it was destined for bad reviews.

And then I remembered my resources. Another printer. A color copier. Admitting you're not sure of some things and actually asking for help . . . a lot of help. And in the end, I may not have a prizewinner but someone learned something.

Namely me! 1. Just because you have it, doesn't mean you have to use it. (2) Paper, pen and our voices have been quite useful tools for some time.