Hannaford

As a journalist I felt I could figure anything out.  As a professor I’ve had my ups and down but overall it has been a good experience.   Yet teaching with PowerPoint presentations is proving to be a great challenge.   I am learning to create PowerPoint presentations now since there were no lessons on it at Hampton, American or the news network.   The publishers of the Intro to Public Relations textbook provide a PowerPoint for each chapter.  Last year I did not use them.  I decided to incorporate my lecture notes, videos and pictures into the presentations as a way to change the class from the previous school year.   Nice idea but harder to execute than I thought.   I took a screen shot of the Old Spice Guy and inserted it on top of a slide with text, oops.    Then I embedded the commercial and a clip of BP CEO Tony Hayward’s famous “I want my life back” declaration. 

 Everything looks good, so I pick up the “smart cart” from the department office.   My classroom is a computer lab but not equipped (side eye.)   I plug everything in, nothing happens and I look stricken. The only grad student in the class says “the projector is warming up.”  The laptop was warming up too. Finally all my equipment is warm, but now I cannot find the presentation on my flash drive!   Found it!  But how do I get this to appear full screen?  I clicked on something and it disappears.   When I began getting everything together I was also making announcements.  Soon I had nothing else to say as I continue fumbling.  The grad student leans over again and says “hit F5” in a soothing voice. I’m starting to feel really dumb as the class quietly stares.   Now it’s on screen. I see the heading, but where is the rest of it? Grad student says “keep pushing the arrow key.”  Another student says, “Sit down you’re blocking the slides.”   No problem I have a remote….but the batteries are dead.    I wedged the cart into an awkward position that created a fire hazard trapping all the students on one a side of the lab and blocking the exit.   Twenty minutes into class and I finally begin the lesson.  

Things were going along smoothly until I reached the slide with a black box on the screen. I’d forgotten about the video clips and didn’t sign onto the campus wireless network.  Since it was so late I didn’t stop the lesson to login.  Campus wireless is extremely slow and I’d had enough embarrassing moments for one class. 

Finally class time was up and I dislodged the cart and the students were free to roam!   But I did not turn the projector off first and blinded a student in the first row.    Before the grad student left I asked her for a tutorial.  I was relieved that she was not condescending and was very helpful.    

Next time I will warm up all the equipment before class starts in my office and do a practice run.  I will also figure out which of my dresses looks best with a dunce cap.     

Air Kisses,

Professor Diva Mac