The Data Projector Goes Down

Today during 5th hour the data projector I use every day to teach my class started making noises. It began a low whine, and then made a snapping sound after about 20 seconds, and the lights went out. This was a very sad occasion.

I use an interactive white board with a projector and my laptop to teach my classes every day. I have been doing this for about two years now. At the end of the day, everything that I have written on the board gets saved as a PDF, and I link it as notes for the day at my website. The running record of what we do in class comes in handy quite often, and makes a lot of what we do in the classroom transparent for missing students, parents, and other interested parties. I enjoy using this technology, the students like it, and some of them have come to depend on it, just as I have myself.

It is likely that I can get the projector fixed for free (it's still under warranty), but it could be several weeks before it comes back from Philips. That feels like a long time right now. We use the projector and the white board for everything. The following hour a student had a presentation that he had created some visual aids for the previous day. I let him work in the computer lab for at least an hour after school on this, and I could see that he really was looking forward to presenting, and using the interactive whiteboard to enhance his book report with the visuals that he had created. His face fell when he saw what had happened with the projector. His book report didn't go nearly as well as it might have. He was counting on the technology to help him along.

I floundered a bit during 5th and 6th hours for the same reason. It is really a lot easier to teach when the entire internet is at your fingertips, you have access to all of the data and files on your laptop, and you can create visuals on the fly. I have become accustomed to the technologies that allow me to teach in this manner, and it was a shock to go back to the old way. It was kind of scary that I was depressed by the fact that I had to go back to writing on the board, leading from the front, and doing all of my old teacher tricks. It felt uncomfortable.

I was on the phone immediately after school trying to figure out what I would need to do to get the projector fixed. It could be a long last few weeks of school. I will probably have to reconfigure my room a bit, unless I can get a projector to borrow during the interim.