A techie discovers a Plan B and likes it.

Act I: It Happens.

To quote Douglas Adams' "Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, "  DON'T PANIC.  The laptop was in the shop with our wonderful @ITS folks for some diagnostics and system cleanup.  We decided on the more radical procedure that would mean that I would be without my regular computer for at least 1/2 a day or more.  "No problem", I said to @ITS.  After all, I had my school issued iPad and I could roll.  I wouldn't have the muscle of the laptop, but I certainly had sufficient computing power for most needs.  In fact, I'm typing this blog entry on my iPad now. I can't format the pictures at the moment, and the spell check is rough so I still need a full computer for somethings.  Still:

I needed a Plan B.

Then there was class.  That day's lesson included a video clip that included the story of Joseph from the Book of Genesis.  Fortunately (or by some act of tech-inspired divine grace), I had uploaded the video clips (formatted .mp4) to Google Drive, along with the PDF copy of the worksheet.  Connecting the iPad to a projector and using the Google Drive iPad app, I was able to bring up the worksheet on the large screen.  Since I was in the same app, I was later able to close the PDF document and switch to the video clip and play the video.

Since I was playing this from the Google Drive, it was essentially streaming the video.  One might need to be sure they have sufficient bandwidth or signal strength to enable this to happen.  It worked for me in this case and I'm eager to continue to experiment.  I would not necessarily recommend this for large movies in HD, but it does open possibilities when it comes to cloud storage and access to files.  iCloud is integral to the Mac ecosystem, but now I know I can also use my Google Drive and its larger free capacity.

Sunset...sunrise.  Another day dawns and I am headed into work.  As my mind turns to the things that await me on campus, I realize we have chapel.  We use Powerpoint and Keynote slides in chapel to show the hymn numbers, prayers, scripture reading, and illustrations that help to make our point.  I also still do not have my primary computer.

I needed a Plan B.

I figured correctly that I could bring up the presentation already prepared (and saved to the Google Drive) in Keynote.  That was not as much a worry.  But I could not find my video adapter dongle that would directly connect the iPad to the projector.  So now what?

From where I sit, the distance is about 12-15 feet.  I had a 3 foot VGA cable and a 40 foot HDMI cable that we use with the laptop.  We have this length because we sometimes would like to run the connection out farther depending on the projector placement.  I had a VGA connector dongle, but I was really looking for the HDMI dongle that would connect the iPad to the Projector using the longer cable I had.

What I needed was a way to run my slide show wirelessly from an iPad.

What I needed was a Plan B.

I was preparing to have a student turn slides for us while sitting there at the iPad, but I recalled an old app called Keynote Remote that is no longer available in the App Store.  KEYNOTE REMOTE is now BUILT IN to recent versions Keynote for Mac and Keynote for iOS.  Instructions on its use can be found here.

Following the instructions was simple enough and I was able to turn the slides using another iOS device connected on the same network.  Chapel went off with out a hitch.  I was able to see the slides as they appeared on the screen since the slide appears on the iOS device used as the remote.  I was even able to "hot swap" to another app on iOS device i used as a remote so I could read a prayer.  I would then swap back to the presentation and resume where I left off.  This is especially helpful  since the screen is often behind me or at an extreme angle that makes seeing difficult.

Act II: Discovering the Plan B-

A Reflection.

The best part of all of this was not in the product or the end result.  It was in the discovery.  I also discovered that the Keynote remote feature on iOS devices has been around for sometime.  In and of itself, it is nothing new.  Still, it was new to me and its discovery allowed me to solve the problem set before me.  In that  moment when you learn something new and it "sticks,"  it is as if a world has opened and there is no going back to the way things were.  You KNOW something now and that knowledge is useful.   This is what we hope will happen with our students- cultivating that spark. That hunger and thirst for knowing more.  It happened for me because I needed a Plan B with necessity being the driving force.

 Act III: Epilogue-  Impacts to teaching and for Students:

The lessons learned have implications for teachers and students when it comes to presentations using Keynote and classroom use.

1. It means that you can have your slides and eat your notes too.  If you include presenters notes embedded into your slides, you can have them together on your remote device and not have to constantly turn to look at the screen.


2. Importing a Powerpoint presentation into Keynote possibly means some loss or adjustment in format and fonts.


3. iPad compatible video files can be uploaded, saved, and streamed from the Google drive. (Caveat: I do not know what attempting to do this on a multiple devices would do to bandwidth or how it might cause the video to "lag.")


4. Have sufficient battery power on BOTH devices to enable this feature.  Because the presentation iPad and the remote iOS device are both constantly on during the entire link and presentation.


5. Have fun.  Play. Experiment. Discover.

Point #5 is crucial.  Fun, Playfulness, Experimentation, and Discovery are ways by which we can model learning for our students.  Despite the fact that some of our students roll their eyes at something they may have already known for some time when it comes to an application or piece of tech,  I would hope that they can see that despite our fears and trepidation, despite our lack of the jargon or the speed to comprehend things, they will see in us a willingness to humble ourselves and actually be filled with wonder and excitement in our own moments of discovery.