Educational Technology Falls At The First Hurdle
I’ll be delivering a lecture by videoconference to three campuses this morning, using video, PowerPoint (very sparingly), a visualiser, audio, controlling lights and sound…
And every time I come in to a lecture theatre, at least one of the two radio mics is not plugged in the right way, and therefore not charged. I’d hoped to use one radio mic as an audience mic here, but now I only have the one on me, because the other one is flat.
I mean, it’s very simple anyway – a light goes on when it’s plugged in correctly. But lecturers were struggling with that, so they put a little coloured sticker on the side of the radio mic, and another on the charger. All you have to do is match them up.
And yet, still, almost every time I enter a lecture theatre, someone has got it wrong.
Maybe it’s low care factor, or maybe just simple lack of skill. Those of us with a certain amount of facility with this stuff might sometimes forget how daunting it can be to encounter for the first time.
I do think, though, that the simple failure to plug the mics in correctly, when it’s signposted that clearly (there’s a big laminated sign on the desk right beside it, too), indicates that (as William Gibson has said), the future is here, but it’s not evenly distributed…