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Tech issues happen to the best of us – me included.
In the past few weeks I’ve had not one, but TWO major tech issues – both of which were beyond my control. I managed to get through them (just!) thanks to my contingency plans, a little luck and some understanding on the part of others around me.
In this episode I’ll share both tech disasters with you, talk about what I did to get through each situation and what I plan to do in the future in the hope that my key learnings might also help you. At the very least, you will understand that these things really can happen to anyone and that it’s not “just you”!
Tech disasters: lessons learnt
- ALWAYS have a contingency plan
- Have alternative, backup contingency plans too
- Save files/folders (especially important ones) into a cloud storage location like Dropbox or Google Drive
- Tip: export Powerpoint/Keynote slides as a PDF before your big presentation (and save that in Dropbox or Google Drive too) so that you have an extra copy that preserves your fonts and layout
- Do regular backups of your laptop
- Have faith in your own knowledge about the topic you will be teaching or presenting
- Ask yourself what you can do to prevent this happening in the future and put systems or reminders in place
Links mentioned in this episode
- Links to free PD (theses links will be coming soon. Stay tuned!)
- Ultimate Guide To Free Music Tech Resources 2018/19 – available soon. In the meantime, you can download the 2017 copy here
Midnight Music Community: special rate for MTT podcast listeners
The Midnight Music Community (MMC) is an online space for music teachers interested in learning more about music technology. There are online courses, lesson plans and lots of other resources for Chromebooks, iPads, Macs and PCs. Professional development certificates are available for all training undertaken by MMC members and I am in the Community everyday, personally answering questions and offering advice to members.
Access the special rate for podcast listeners here.
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3 Comments
___123___MTT59: Tech Issues Happen To The Best Of Us | Midnight Music___123___
An interesting account of your problem-solving! You’re clearly an ultra-organised person, and for someone like you to have issues like this, and to hear how you deal with them was quite eye-opening.
An additional thought that might be useful for you: I too use multiple cloud services for backups, and I thought that if you had also had backups in Dropbox of your custom fonts that you regularly use in your slideshows, then you may have been able to install them on the computer that you had to use for your presentation, which would have fixed any font issues you had. I use a couple of custom fonts myself (mainly one that I’ve created of my own handwriting), and it’s useful to have those available to install on other computers I may need to use.
Love your work 🙂
Thanks Joseph! That’s a great tip about the fonts. I only use a couple of custom ones so that would work well.