How the iPad (and other tech tools) saved me in class today
September 14th, 2010
I’m the kind of person who was born expecting things to go wrong. In elementary school, I was the kid with three #2 pencils for the SATs…just in case both of the standard ones broke. In college, I was the student who backed up my work on CDs, flash drives, the network drive, another laptop, etc. Basically, I try to live my life with a plan B…and C…and D…etc.
When I started teaching, I approached my responsibilities in the same way. Grades are stored in multiple (secure) places. PowerPoint presentations are on my laptop and on a flash drive (just in case I need to transfer to the classroom desktop mid-lecture. Yes, my laptop has died mid-lecture, but that was before my amazing Lenovo). I used LiveMesh before switching to Dropbox and Evernote (I’m paranoid). Always have a plan B…
…and then there was today.
For some reason, I truly thought I had placed my power cord in my messenger bag.
Apparently, I hadn’t. And it was speech-day today; one of the most power-draining “I really need my laptop for this” moments of the semester.
I got through the first class just fine and shut down my laptop to conserve power.
Halfway through the second class’ speeches, the power alert icon popped up.
“3% remaining. Switch to power or lose your work.”
It should have read more along the lines of, “3% remaining. Why aren’t you switching to power? What kind of person allows their laptop to drain to 3%? Huh? HUH?!?!”
At least, that’s what it felt like at that moment.
And for one of the few times in my entire teaching career – I panicked.
I had no plan B or even C. I didn’t have the grading sheets printed out (I like to save paper), I didn’t have a second device to plug the flash drive into (I used to have a Dell Mini9), and while I generally remember 80% of speeches during the 2-3 days from which they are given, I didn’t want to just sit there, listen, and grade later.
And then the solution came to me.
I generally use Quickoffice HD (Quickoffice Connect) for all my document editing needs, but I discovered an interesting fact: You can’t edit .xlsx files.
Panic again.
Then, I remembered I still had DocsToGo installed, a program that had given me much grief when trying to pull up and edit Word and Google Docs documents. It was worth a shot.
It worked.
I could now grade the speeches from the comfort of my iPad and rest assured that they were syncing with my Dropbox account, to be accessed and printed at a later date from either my work desktop or my laptop (once it had power again).
So, in summary:
- Dropbox + iPad + DocsToGo = class goes on…
…and that is how the iPad (and other tech tools) saved me in class today.
very nice . . . wish I had some of those gadgets to save my backside from time to time . . . ;)
Amazing!!!
I love this story for so many reasons. Teaching and learning can be enhanced with good technology skills — good technology skills! I just have to share the link to this story.