I finally got my computer repaired. Yay! It is amazing how reliant we have become on technology - computers, iPods, PDAs, cell phones... I felt so out of touch in the past week without my computer.
I taught a food safety class last week and the entire 16-hour course was developed on PowerPoint. When I got to the class location, I hooked up the laptop, projector and thumb drive. First the USB port failed and I had to change laptops. Once I got the presentation downloaded from the thumbdrive, the projector failed. After 45 minutes of fumbling, I gave up and taught the entire two-day class without the crutch of PowerPoint. As nervous as I was, it worked out fine. Of course, the "Jeopardy" style game before the final exam could not be used (the PowerPoint presentation included great graphics, music and automatic scorekeeping!), but since I already had the prizes purchased and since the game is fun and a good review of the material, I went to Staples and bought foamboard, colored index cards, double-sided tape and Sharpie markers and spent two hours making an old-fashioned version of the Jeopardy game. The students loved it and I realized that technology is not the only way to get information across. Of course, without my computer, I couldn't blog and I can't believe it, but I missed it.
I taught a food safety class last week and the entire 16-hour course was developed on PowerPoint. When I got to the class location, I hooked up the laptop, projector and thumb drive. First the USB port failed and I had to change laptops. Once I got the presentation downloaded from the thumbdrive, the projector failed. After 45 minutes of fumbling, I gave up and taught the entire two-day class without the crutch of PowerPoint. As nervous as I was, it worked out fine. Of course, the "Jeopardy" style game before the final exam could not be used (the PowerPoint presentation included great graphics, music and automatic scorekeeping!), but since I already had the prizes purchased and since the game is fun and a good review of the material, I went to Staples and bought foamboard, colored index cards, double-sided tape and Sharpie markers and spent two hours making an old-fashioned version of the Jeopardy game. The students loved it and I realized that technology is not the only way to get information across. Of course, without my computer, I couldn't blog and I can't believe it, but I missed it.
1 comment:
Sometimes when a techno-gadget fails it's a good reminder that we can manage without it. It sounds like you did a good job thinking on your feet and you pulled it all off! Congratulations! I'll bet it was a little nerve-wracking though.
Glad you're back!!
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