During a recent session I was facilitating, the discussion went in a different direction than I was expecting. Since I was presenting remotely via my laptop, I was able to quickly pull up a relevant visual I had not planned to use, and tie the conversation back to the point I was attempting to make.
My ability to call an audible during the workshop reminded me of my early training days where we used overhead transparencies. I have always missed the flexibility that overheads provided — the ability to rearrange the order in the moment, to skip slides without fanfare, to have a large repertoire of options from which to choose. PowerPoint and its cousins lock me into an order that makes sense going in, but doesn’t always feel right as the presentation evolves.
My takeaway from remote teaching is that when I’m back in-person, I’m going to have my key documents at-the-ready in the cloud so that I can access them should the situation warrant. It may interrupt the flow or cause a momentary delay, but in the end I believe learning is worth the wait. Don’t become so focused on the presentation mechanics that you fail to prioritize the content.
