Hand Held Teaching

After three days of teaching, I am only a lecture or two behind schedule.  Before I arrived in India, I sent my slides to be translated into Tibetan.  Because the monks speak little or no English, it is important that they can read the slides.  However, having my slides in Tibetan makes things difficult for me because I can't read them!

I have ended up using two computers:  one computer projects the Tibetan version of my slides onto a screen and one computer with my English slides I carry around the classroom to make sure I don't forget any important points.  It makes for quite a balancing act, but my small netbook computer is well-suited for this.

The danger using a computer/projector system is the possibility that the power will go out.  Yesterday, the power went out 5-6 times.  One time the power went out just as the class was doing a comparative neuroanatomy activity.  The monks had learned the basic parts of the brain and were now looking at a slide of six different brain and deciding which brain belonged to which animal.  Right then, the power went out.  It wasn't too much of a problem because many of the monks carry cell phones and took photos of the slide.  (There are even a few monks with tablet computers and I-Pads.)  The power stayed out for about 15 minutes.