Why I Use Assistive Technology As a Presenter

Earlier in the year, I posted about why my memory sucks – how a softball injury has affected me. I truly appreciate all of the kind words I received from that post, and I continue to forage on with my sucky memory. I present on things I’m passionate about to some folks who may not entirely understand why I do things the way I do.

Brief synopsis:

• I took a softball to the face several years ago (playing softball, not a rogue bystander injury)
• It took 2 years of a liquid diet, maxing out all of my dental/physiotherapy/massage coverage, and a jaw surgery to address the physical issues
• I now suffer from post-concussion syndrome, and haven’t quite figured out the nuances of my new memory
• This injury has forced me (for now) to defer my Ed.D because I am no longer confident writing 100+ page papers that require me to remember things I wrote several paragraphs earlier
• I am still learning strategies for dealing with my memory issues and welcome any suggestions

This year, I presented at several events, notably DevLearn…where I facilitated a 1-day pre-conference certificate workshop on Introduction to Instructional Design and a BYOD session on using Variables in Articulate Storyline 360.

In both of those sessions, I addressed a big of housekeeping: why I use assistive technology to help me present. Basically, it’s so that I can get all of the information I need to get to my audience. I understand that at times I may seem flakey or scatter-brained, but I assure you it’s not because I’m making excuses for myself. As someone who also suffers from anxiety, when I trip up during a presentation, it also stresses me out. I want everyone to feel like they’ve been able to take something valuable from my sessions, and I want to seem like a competent industry professional.

But….when session evaluation time rolls around, opening the files is always a moment of induced anxiety. You’ll never please 100% of the attendees or participants, and I’m fine with that, but I always kind of hold my breath while I read through to see what folks are saying about the assistive technology. This year I was incredibly surprised by all of the supportive feedback I received. I received a lot of great suggestions that I will take forward with me in my session-delivering-journey, and again, I will always be receptive to this type of constructive criticism.

As I work to finalize a presentation for my session with the E-Learning Guild for their Spotlight, I thought I would record a quick screencast that shows you how I create my session notes.

Check out the screencast below!