Today I am scheduled to teach English 160 for the third time this semester. Unlike the previous two times (see here and here), I will actually be presenting lecture material to the class on Recommendation Reports.

Due to the technical difficulties I experienced last week (there were campus-wide issues with network file storage, preventing people from logging into CLC machines), I decided to bring along some “insurance”. My presentation is currently housed on a tablet PC that I can log into locally if necessary. Furthermore, instead of the Smartboard in the classroom, I am using a projector that I brought from our office in conjunction with a Targus presenter device that allows me to walk around the room and still advance the slides remotely (I love this device!). I did have to shove the Smartboard out of the way of the projection screen. EdTech really needs to upgrade this room, but the funds for the room are provided by a department and the room is not centrally scheduled, to EdTech doesn’t have much say about what equipment is housed here (it’s provided through some grant funding, I believe).

I plan on having Blackboard available on the Smartboard if I want to show the students some quotations from a presentation earlier in the semester (their first day, in fact). I also want to show them where they can find the presentation to review the content, if they desire (I doubt they will, but I like to give them that option).

Dr. Northcut, the regular instructor for the class was kind enough to provide me with the basic slides for the class. However, I didn’t much care for her choice of background color (light purple is just not my color), so I “dressed up” the slides a bit with a Missouri S&T template. Dr. Northcut is more than welcome to use that template for future presentations, of course.

I also added some complexity to the slide transitions to highlight certain aspects of the content.

We shall see how it goes today.  More later (after class).