Things I’ve Recently Learned

I want to use this space to share some of my learning. In some cases, these might be things I already knew, but were recently confirmed.  What I share will probably be a wide variety of things, some of it of interest, some of it of little or no value to anyone. I won’t consider myself a master at any of these things just yet, but feel free to ask me questions if the idea is of interest to you.  If you have any comments for me on any of the items, please share.

Four things I learned recently related to giving presentations.

1.  Presenting with an iPad isn’t as easy as I thought.  I presented with my iPad for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  I did because I simply wanted to try it.  In the past, I always presented from my laptop, but this time, wanted to experiment with something different.  For the most part, things were fine.  However, I had links in the presentation to both iTunes and iTunesU.  On the laptop, these links worked just fine, but as you know, on the iPad, these are two different apps.  This caused a few issues for me.  Nothing major, but it wasn’t as smooth of a transition as I would have liked.

2.  I bought a Magic Trackpad to use has a remote control for my MBP.  I also have a wireless keyboard so I can be a little more comfortable when working at my desk.  I decided to try using my Magic Trackpad as a remote control for a presenting.  It would allow me to walk around, which I like to do, still control the presentation and also, move the mouse around the screen to click on certain links.  This isn’t possible with the little white remote that I’ve used in the past.  Overall thoughts on using the TrackPad?  Very positive.

3.  Presenting via Webex or Blackboard/Elluminate is a very different and challenging experience.  I had the thrill of being invited to share one of my presentations with Dean Shareski‘s students from the U. of Regina last week.  This class is full of preservice teachers getting ready to dive into the crazy world of education.   I’ve only presented to my computer screen once, several years ago, but found the experience difficult.  It’s hard to gauge how the presentation is going.  You can’t see the faces of the people watching, you can’t tell if there it’s going well.  You can watch the chat room, but if no one’s commenting, there’s no feedback.  I did get some feedback after the presentation, which was positive, but it wasn’t the same as presenting to a live audience.

4.  There are still A LOT of educators as the very beginning of the educational technology landscape.  There are many still learning about Twitter, social learning, Google Apps, etc.  We (those of us who are a little ahead of the curve) cannot forget about these people.  We’re still having the same conversations we’ve had three or four years ago, but I think they are with different people.  Google presentations as conferences for years have always been packed and they will be for a while.

Not related to presenting:

1.  I’ve learned that once you leave a job, the people there really don’t care about you anymore.  Out of site, out of mind.  I had several friends at my old school who I spoke to everyday.  I looked forward to seeing them and generally connected on a regular basis.  Since I left my job over 4 months ago, there’s been little to no contact with them.  I guess I wanted to be missed a little more, but that’s the way it goes.  I’m super happy with where I’m at right now, but there’s part of my that wishes some previous connections still existed.  I miss the collegiality of working in a building with physical people.  Right now, most of my daily conversations are with my dog.  Fortunately, my new co-workers are awesome and I get to see them in person every few weeks.