Presenting Instructional Technology: I Love It, I Hate It

So yesterday afternoon, I facilitated the first of the 2007-2008 Local District 5 Instructional Technology Leader Meetings. I introduced many web resources (as I try to do each time I hold these sessions), and the main topic was to show Los Angeles Unified School District's My Mail. This e-mail program is our school district's version of the Google Apps for Schools. It has the following features for students: a start page similar to iGoogle, e-mail similar to Gmail, the online document, spreadsheet, and presentation tool called Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Wielding an older laptop, I was navigating through the My Mail system when my computer froze. Okay then. I restarted the computer. As I ended the afternoon, questions came out regarding Google Earth updates since I first presented the tool to the group last year. I obliged and showed them Google Sky and then tried to take them to the built-in flight simulator when... the computer once again crashed. Well, I'm glad it was the end of the meeting.

Then, I went to the 21st Century Learners Symposium. It was another place with no public wifi access, so I pulled out a notepad to blog the old way. I wanted to refresh my memory regarding Alan November's views on information literacy. If you haven't been to one of his presentations before, he likes to explore through the resources of the Internet live. As he sifted through sites such as Google, Alta Vista, Technorati, Archive.org, Bloglines, and NoFiltr.com, he began having some difficulties with a slow Internet connection. How did he cope? He just moved on. I felt reassured that technical difficulties can happen to the best of them.

Later in the day, I spent my time listening to Cheryl Lemke as she spoke on 21st Century Skills. Her struggle through technical difficulties included microphone feedback as well as slow Internet response as she tapped into web-based videos. I forgot to mention that both she and Alan November had to battle with other external issues that affected their communication. Alan stated that it was like peering over the horizon, observing the curvature of the Earth, in reference to how long the room was that housed the audience that both of them addressed. And because of a major remodeling of the Pasadena Conference Center, everyone could hear the background foley work of a jackhammer as both presentations progressed.

So why do I even bring these issues up? Well, it illustrates the fact that "technical difficulties" happen but not to the detriment of the message being delivered! It kinda relates to the "silver lining" metaphor. That is what I must keep in mind as I go through my own issues during presentations. Of course, this is where I am beginning to store all of my issues of overcoming difficulties. For a rundown of my learnings at the event I evaluated above, stay tuned for my entry in Learning Side by Side w/ John Rivera. But I do leave you with this video of bloopers to amuse you with (even though they are contrived mistakes).

monsters inc bloopers

Self-Restraint: Always a Good Thing For Me

I first want to say thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I have had this space created for a while but have not posted anything until now because I have other blogs to share out what I want to.

But I wanted to let you know that I ran into a snag with one of my blogs last week (Learning Side By Side w/ John Rivera). I was typing up a very extensive, thoughtful entry reflecting on an opinion article I read and tried to relate it to a recent professional development workshop I attended. I pretty much finished the entry (with links all over), and therefore clicked on "Post". Five minutes later, it still had not finished uploading. So I tried to copy the piece, but everything came out blank.

At this same time, my wife asked me to speak with her about some personal matters...

I was ready to explode but caught myself (imagine seeing myself looking over my own shoulder as this scenario was unfolding). I gathered my self before releasing my full attention to my wife, walking away from the computer that I almost used to create a new window in my home.

For days, I wanted to rant about this in my blog. But as the days went by, I found myself understanding the need for reflection on this situation. I thought about how I could have avoided the situation. After all, I've always told participants in my online courses that I facilitate to first type their discussion entries in a word processing document first so they could paste it into the discussion board of the class they were in.

Here is something I came up with recently as my solution. I will use Google Docs & Spreadsheets to publish my entries. This is because the file automatically saves every 20 seconds. And if I need to go back, I can cycle through revisions. For Blogger sites, you can automatically publish what you write in a Google document with just a couple of clicks. Too bad it doesn't do that as easy with my blogs hosted by other companies. Nevertheless, "copy and paste" is not something I would complain about.

Therefore, I was glad I didn't allow myself to lose it last week. I saved myself a lot of hours in having to possibly patch up a wall, apologize to my wife, rescue files from my computer, and displace anger wherever I went. Maybe I'll get to re-write what I really wanted to publish last week. We'll see!