30 Blogposts of Summer #5: Cutting the Cord

I'm waiting in the airport for my flight to Chicago which has been delayed an hour…just about enough time to get this post done. While in Chicago I will be presenting my talk, “10 Technology Trends that Will Change Education (and the World in General)” for the Riverside Leadership Conference. I'm looking forward to everything except the anticipated weather of 95+. However the conference and my talk are not really the theme of this post.

Generally when I go to present, I take a netbook,which I use to show the PowerPoint or Prezi, and my iPad, which I carry around the room with my notes. This is the first time that I've left the laptop behind and am going iPad solo. While the weight and logistic advantages of carrying only one device are obvious (little known fact, you don't have to take an iPad out of your luggage at security check), I have always worried about giving up the full editing capability of the netbook. However, three factors have changed my thinking.

1. There are presentation programs for PowerPoint and Prezi that are dependable and don't force me to give up features as much as the early ones did. Currently I am using Slideshark for PowerPoint and the Prezi Viewer. These two programs work with high dependability while maintaining animations and slide builds.
2. Sometimes I've needed to make changes in a presentation the night before which was impossible in the past. However, new features in the Prezi Viewer allow basic editing, with growing options with each new release. For PowerPoint, the Cloudon app gives me the ability to edit my presentation in a full MS Office interface, again, not perfect, but consistantly improving. So I'm not stuck if I come up with a great idea at the last minute.
3. I have also observed that though I carry the iPad with notes, I seldom, if ever, refer to them. I've done most of my presentations enough that I can work from the slides, and if I am working on something new, it's just as convenient (and significantly lighter) to carry a pad of (dare I say it) paper.

Currently I use an adapter to connect the ipad to the projector, so i need toelevate the iPad on the podium. But I am also looking forward to a time when I can go wireless and connect to the projector with Apple TV or another protocol so I can carry the iPad around the room as I talk.

So my travel becomes significantly streamlined, with little to no loss of ability.

I'll let you know how this all works out.

Image credit: Image: '365:244' http://www.flickr.com/photos/25188624@N02/4659896893

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