January 25, 2011

What NOT To Do

Last week, I realized that my "clicker," also known as a wireless presenter, was missing its USB plug-in-thingy. Yes, technology and I are close friends. Can you tell? Then, I promptly forgot about it. . . until yesterday afternoon.

Today is the day in class where I stand up and show the students I know what I'm talking about. I perform a eulogy speech for them. It serves several purposes. First, it tells the students a little bit about me. Second, it shows them that I can deliver a decent speech so therefore, if they just pay attention and do what I tell them, they will also (at some point) be able to produce a decent speech themselves. Finally, it serves as a fantastic example of how to have a power point presentation that supplements your overall presentation without taking over your presentation.

In theory, that's what it's supposed to do. Every other semester that I have done this (all five), it has worked perfectly.

Today? Not so much.

I told Mr. BBM that my wireless presenter thingy was gone and he told me he had a solution for me. Rather than going out to buy a new one, he dug out this wireless computer mouse thing and told me it would be just like my presenter (except not really like it at all, even slightly. No).

I arrived a little early for class, brought my slide show up on the computer screen and tried it out. It worked! Sweet success! Yes!

I took my place in the center of the room, near the podium, and began my speech. I held out my hand to click to the next slide and nothing. I moved closer to the computer. Nothing. I moved right on top of the computer and finally it clicked. . . through the next three slides. This was going to be a problem.

I will spare you (and therefore myself, again) the embarrassment and nightmarish awfulness that occurred over the next few minutes. I would get it to work, click through four slides and be unable to click back. I'd have to hit "esc" and go back to the main screen again. Then, sometimes, the little message would appear on the screen, right smack in the middle of the slide that would have a little menu like "next slide, previous slide, etc." Except here's the thing, when you clicked on that, it didn't work. And then I did what I always tell my students NOT to do. . . I apologized.

I finally gave up on the wireless mouse working and just clicked the regular old computer mouse to get from slide to slide. If there was ever an example of working through it when everything technological is going wrong, I was it.

When I finished, they clapped and I shook my head in disbelief. "That was what NOT to do," I told them. "Don't ever apologize, even when you're flustered. Don't ever assume your husband knows what he's talking about when it comes to wireless mouse things either."

They laughed and I laughed at myself. What else could I do?

I normally like to give them an example of what TO do, not the opposite. Today, I hope they learned just as much by me having a major screw-up of a day. One thing that is for sure? My favorite office supply store will be selling another wireless pointer this week. This was one lesson I don't care to repeat.