When the Projection Failed…

A student added humor during a group presentation when he opted to utilize the advantage of his height to solve a projection problem.

The third year Information Sciences class, comprising of students pursuing both Media Science and Information Sciences bachelor’s degrees, had a session of group assignment presentation in the morning of Wednesday 29^th May, 2013 in the faculty’s LT2. The class of about 120 undergraduates was segmented into a total of 17 groups and each was given a similar task of evaluating a different web search engine under the course, Information Retrieval System, coded as INS 313. A search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web (www), such as Google.

As the faculty name suggests, the School of Information Sciences serves as a leading role model to the entire Moi University’s Main campus in embracing the use of advanced technology in its operations, especially as far as information is concerned. It allows students under its umbrella to obtain maximum technological exposure through the interaction and use of IT-based machines and services such as computers, projectors, internet connection and the FM Radio station.

It was time for group 8 to present to the class their research findings about a search engine of their choice under the supervision of lecturer Mrs. Emily Ng’eno Tuitoek. They had chosen to evaluate IXQUICK as a search engine. The presentation commenced, using a projector to visually display the PowerPoint slides from their laptop as an aid to enhance the audience understanding.

However, the group encountered a challenge in the course of the presentation process when one of the members wanted to use a demonstrative illustration that had not been included in the current slides. He tried to find it from the computer location where it was saved but his efforts were futile. Several other members quickly came to his rescue and after a while, the problem was half-solved. They located the file but somehow failed to immediately incorporate it into the slides for display through the projector. This created a moment of silence that was almost going to hijack the audience concentration on the presentation.

Interestingly, one of the members of the group never seemed to show any sign of being disturbed. As the rest were sweating around the laptop, trying to fix the problem, he just maintained his sitting position as if not aware of what was going on. However, seeing that more time was going into waste, Joseph (not his real name) made up his mind and came up with a ‘crazy’ solution. He got up quickly and as if only half-serious, took the laptop away from the table and lifted it up for the audience to see what was refusing to go into projection.

“Okay, since time is not there, I will just lift it [the laptop] up for you to see so that we can continue instead of waiting…” the comrade clarified.

The whole crowd busted into laughter, the lecturer not being an exception, but the tall man never seemed to put a smile on his face. He was quite certain that his idea was going to work. After a short relief from the uncontrollable laughter, the lecturer credited the idea and confessed that it helped to add humor to the presentation, hence making it livelier.

The demonstration therefore proceeded and the group apparently emerged one of the best. Thanks to the hero; that is what had to be done when the projection failed.