So my Nicaragua class was being observed today. By the new Chair. And obviously I wanted to make a good impression. I prepared my activities, my photos, my slides, everything, and uploaded it all to Dropbox. And of course, for the first time in my life, the Dropbox didn’t sync.
Yes, I could have printed out the activities but I hate wasting paper when I can have it all on the screen instead.
So I’m standing there in front of the Chair and 39 students and realizing that the class has started and I’ve got nothing. Of course, I can speak about Nicaragua without props, but this was not a warm and fuzzy experience because I had to come up with stuff on the spot.
The Chair said that he enjoyed the class and that my voice shone through even in the absence of the props but I was still seriously rattled. And now I have to rush home to get the materials for my next class because they didn’t upload either.
I also need to calm down because I’m still rattled.
Clarissa's Blog 
Calm down. You did great. Your lectures are powerful. Morality of the story: never use technology in the classroom, and make it so a rule clearly stipulated in your statement of teaching philosophy.
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Thank you. I know, it’s really not a big deal but in the moment I did freak out. I don’t like being unprepared and I tend to have delayed reaction to things. Whew. Deep breaths.
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I have to disagree Ol, being a person who never uses technology is just as bad as being a person who feels like they always have to use technology. Text heavy powerpoints can be terrible, but you can also use powerpoint to present things like maps, graphs, photos, and art works and those visuals can be really valuable in some classes. You always need to start with what you want the students to learn and use technology when it supports that goal.
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This was a freshman course, and it really helps to show them a map and some images of Nicaragua just to orient the students to see what I’m talking about because otherwise they are lost.
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Also, students only very vaguely know who Reagan is and it helps to show a photo, at least.
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I’m imagining you drawing a map of the United States on the board, asking them what’s south of the U.S., drawing Mexico, asking what’s south of that and waiting for the students’ guesses.
I imagine something similar with you writing Obama’s name on the board then G.W. Bush, then Clinton, then the long pause as students try to place any of the other 20th century presidents from before most of them were born.
You wouldn’t have time for all of that in class, but it’s still fun to imagine.
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Who can forget Ronnie Raygun’s Greatest Hits, like that Super Secret Squirrel Sabotage Manual written for certain Nicaraguans?
“Cheap steak tough the man is …” 🙂
[we will now continue with your regularly scheduled ‘B’ Movie]
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Deep breaths. I’m sure you did great.
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When I was doing my Phd presentation I was told, “You are not allowed to use any technology that did not exist during the life of the Prophet Mohammed.”
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So writing on the side of goats and camels was okay?
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Yes, an electrical blackout isn’t going to be a problem for chalking and talking on the goat. It is a disaster for power point.
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I always try to have a back up anytime I depend on technology.
But the first week of the semester (late february) did manage to forget the usb stick with all the material (including media) for one class at home. I did a lot more talking (shoving up a bunch of stuff from later classes) and the students didn’t seem to mind but it didn’t do my nerves any good.
On the bright side this is more ammunition for your anti-MOOC stance…
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“On the bright side this is more ammunition for your anti-MOOC stance…”
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\ We were warned to say only positive things about online learning at the conference tomorrow.
Why? Is it dangerous (for whom?) to say otherwise?
Do share how it went: your talk, your thoughts on other people’s arguments, etc.
You may not be the only one against MOOCs, who knows.
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The Illinois Board of Higher Ed wants to hear that online learning is the messiah. The university admin wants to hear that, as well. But when did such attempts to censor me ever provoke anything but an even more entrenched position on my part?
I will be live-blogging the whole event tomorrow. Oh, this will be good.
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I’m so excited to read about this!
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That’s strange. I had a Dropbox syncing issue in class too. I had to shut it down, sign out, reopen in a different browser, and resign in and then it worked. I’m so sorry.
But I’m sure you did great. Still, I completely understand why you felt rattled. That’s terrible.
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Hah! So it might not be just my problem! It’s good to know. I tried a different browser, too, but that didn’t work and I couldn’t keep trying with the Chair staring at me.
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Ugh! This is my worst fear in my giant Humanities class — that dropbox will somehow let me down and then my powerpoint will be unavailable. I would still be able to lecture, but the students have zero skill in taking notes without bullet points at this point. I’ll talk for 20 minutes sometimes without changing slides, but it’s not until I bring up the next bullet that students will write a single thing down.
So I certainly feel for you! You got through it, though, and knowing you, it was probably great! Deep breaths!!
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“I’ll talk for 20 minutes sometimes without changing slides, but it’s not until I bring up the next bullet that students will write a single thing down.”
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I’ll suggest a technical fix …
Purchase a Wi-Fi mobile broadband hotspot that has reliable coverage in your area — they can be a bit pricey, but having a backup plan is usually worth it.
I have no idea what prices are for you, but my EE Kite costs £80 and service on a PAYG SIM costs me roughly £3 per GB, slightly less when Tesco or Carphone Warehouse are having sales on pre-loaded data SIMs. That’s not unreasonable in terms of costs of having a backup plan.
I’ve tried T-Mobile while in the States, but service was spotty at best, so I’d suggest another carrier. (Pity LTE roaming never works for me — I’m stuck on 2G in the States most of the time with T-Mobile, in fact, and even that service is risible.)
Anyway, this backup plan is cheaper in terms of the cost of stress than having those “and there I was, standing in front of a group of people when my kit didn’t work” kinds of moments.
Some of these hotspots have a Windows file sharing service on them, so you can download your files to a nicely big microSD card inside the hotspot and carry that with you as your “backup backup plan” …
As for cloud storage, I don’t trust any cloud that I haven’t built myself, but then again I am in fact a more or less competent evil villain. 🙂
“Chance may favour the prepared, but there’s still no substitute for a loaded gun.”
🙂
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The problem is that the classrooms in our building have walls covered with sheeted metal. The buildings were constructed at the height of the Cold War, so the goal was to prepare us to bunker down in case of a nuclear attack. As a result, there is no wi-fi or cell phone coverage in those buildings. I have no idea what the plan is for the case if a psycho with a shotgun walks in and starts shooting. We won’t even be able to call 911.
I’ve had a situation when a disabled student got ill in the classroom, so I had to run a seriously long distance to emerge out of the building and dial for help. The whole setup is medieval but, barring a major renovation plan, we are stuck with this idiocy.
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