Chrissy’s the bomb and I’m the damp sponge
Well gee, I can’t say I haven’t had an interesting week. Have spent much of the last couple of weeks researching Higher Order Thinking Skills, writing assignment one and putting together my power point presentation for the Digital Deco ICT conference. I finished it on the Tuesday night…… Smiled quietly to my self for 24 hours and then promptly dropped said laptop off the kitchen bench, trust me, they’re not really designed for that.
I then spent all of Thursday panicked that I’d lost my assignment and power point presentation, and that I’d spend all night Thursday redoing it. Fortunately for me a guy called Andy from East Coast Computers came over, took out the hard drive and managed to pull the two documents off. Yippee.
It is only then that the real fun begins. I arrive on the Friday all ready to go, memory stick in hand and the promise of a borrowed laptop.
PRS is a great system…. Classroom response unit. Unfortunately there were a couple of features involved in embedding in Power point that I over looked. There can only be ONE asked question per page NOT the 2 or 3 I had planned, also the Question when it comes up creates a ‘toolbar’ across the top. Couple these two together and you have a rather wonky presentation document with custom animation going off when it shouldn’t. Ahhh!
We were only given an hour so, yep you guessed it, I didn’t get finished. Not only that but we barely got started on applying Higher Order Thinking to a curriculum area. Doh!
Finally I have a deligate say quite openly “I am bored now,” – I mean how should one respond?
Just for the record I, for one, was not bored, Freaked, yes, disappointed, yes, embarrassed, certainly.
Twas a chapter of disasters from start to finish.
Chrissy, on the other hand preformed incredibly well. Her wonderfulworldofwikis presentation was an inspiration to all who attended. She even had someone who created her own wikispace for the presentation she was giving immediately after. Go Chrissy.
Btw I have to mention that she called Vicki the “Wiki Queen”- well in made me smile at the time- probably just one of those ‘had to be there things.
You have my total sympathy. How easily it can all turn to custard!
When I was doing my podcasting thing at ULearn the internet went down five minutes before kick off. For the first 20 minutes of my presentation I had two technicians crawling around under the table was I was trying to talk!
Thank goodness I was able to stall by listening to iTunes podcasts and I had lots of sites pre-loaded in tabs!!!
Hope the kitchen sink incident was not fatal!
Life is performance art. Its how you deal with adversity that is more telling than experiencing success. I reckon taking turns at being the damp sponge is essential – how else would we recognise and value our moments as the bomb? And if it always goes to plan with a hiss and a roar its much harder to figure out how to improve – this way whatever happens the next time you share your thinking with others you will feel better about the outcome.
Thank you for sharing
, As I read your post I cringed about presentations I have given and things that have gone wrong. I have a sneak way now to start a presentation. I talk about the importance of teaching students to problem solve and learn from mistakes. Technology is the best vehicle for that as you are most probably going to have to find three other ways to do what you started out to do and make a few mistakes before you find the answer – That way they all think I plan the things that go wrong!
Hmmmmm…… what a damp sponge moment!
As artichoke mentioned, we all take turns at being the damp sponge – and it is these grounding moments that we learn the most and make effective changes for the future.
You have our total sympathies – what a nightmarish series of events…. and the fact that you didn’t have your own laptop only heightens the problem as we really get used to everything being there in our everyday “friend”.
I’m sure the notes that you’ll post or the access to the presentation that you’ll provide to teachers will more than make up for your experience. Hopefully there’s a place (conference website?) where they can access these.
Cheers, Rachel
And as for being bored…..don’t know what I’d do if someone said that to me during a presentation! Probably not the best move to say that to a person who’s clearly under extreme stress and frustration!
You are so hard on yourself! You did extremely well considering all that “extra” pressure dropping the laptop gave you. I thought your presentation went well and many people were nodding their heads at the potential and engagement the PRS system can offer students in the classroom. You are now armed with some “inside” knowledge about your presentation and when you do it again in Aussie you will be the PRS King!
Simon … how to respond to hte negative comment … ignore it … anyone who presents knows things never go to plan.
I know I have learnt a lot from you using Skype… and it wasn’t actually from the presentation I came to.
Keep smiling!
Hopefully time has healed your wounds!
On a positive note… you have been tagged by me for the 8 random facts meme – see my blog for further info. Looking forwards to reading some interesting things about you!
http://tinyurl.com/yts4tb
Cheers, Rachel