I don’t trust technology, or planes. You wouldn’t want to sit beside me if you were flying anywhere. (My husband has permanent nail marks in his hand.) The internet, to me, is like a plane. I don’t understand how it works and assume that it isn’t going to. Because of this, I start my Zoom sessions an hour before students are required to log in just to make sure that someone hasn’t broken the internet. And, I sit in front of my Zoom screen like the priest in The Sentinel (1977 version, of course) guarding the gates of hell. Just waiting for something terrifying to happen. It usually doesn’t. But, on Thursday, it did.
So, here’s what happened. It was a dark and stormy night. Just kidding. I run my Zoom session from my computer and share my iPad screen when I lecture. Perfect. Except that on Thursday, Zoom wouldn’t let me share my iPad screen. This induced the same feeling I used to have when my window and door wouldn’t work in the yellow Chevette and I was approaching the bridge. Panic!
I made this discovery at 8:00 AM. I consulted Google to find out why this was happening to me. Google offered me volumes of useless advice… Minutes ticked by as I frantically scrolled my way through it all. At this point, the caffeine from 3 cups of coffee was coursing through my veins and not helping me think calmly about what to do next.
Long story, short: After 50 minutes of panicking, I remembered that I could login to Zoom as a participant from my iPad. Since I had my Zoom settings configured to allow screen sharing for my learners, I could share my screen in a workaround kind of way… just like pole vaulting through the passenger’s door to get through the toll booth. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked. I remembered this at 8:50,10 minutes before show time.
I share this fix with you, because I spent 50 minutes panicking even though I already knew the fix. I just couldn’t conjure it up in my moment of panic. A good workaround that I’ll remember next time.