He couldn’t operate with out it. He didn’t even know where he was in the lecture. What have I covered? What’s next?

Today in my presentation my Keynote crashed. I restarted it and it crashed again. The giggling students in the back were real encouraging. I would have been laughing too. I restarted the computer and it crashed again. Why?

I am still a believer in Keynote and my experience has been much better than PowerPoint. This is the first time that Keynote has caused this problem for me. PowerPoint did this to me more often than not. And usually when it died, it took the computer down with it.

I don’t know if I kept my cool and I don’t remember if it threw me off. Unfortunately we video tapes the event and I will have a record of my mistakes.

What have a I learned? Preparation must take into account contingency. Do I know my presentation well enough to run without it? Am I versed enough in the topic to handle it alone? Can I troubleshoot my laptop and get it back up and running without interrupting the class? Do I have a backup system?

Tonight I will present the same material. I will spend a few hours with my system beforehand trying to troubleshoot the problem. I will probably also have a second laptop on hand.

One copy is not a backup.