I remember the moment when I transitioned from using 35mm slides to PowerPoint digital images for my lectures. It was about 9 years ago when I had been asked to give a lecture at a museum, and the only images the museum could provide me with were digital. I had lectured for the past 10 years or so using slides and was very apprehensive about making the change to digital. I also felt very attached to my collection of little slides, all kept neatly in binders, most labeled carefully and organized into lecture themes. But I realized I was going to have to do so at some point. Right about that time my son was about 1 year old, and I had been watching him tackle new challenges on a daily basis, most notably learning to crawl on all fours, then stand up and then just recently take his first steps and begin to walk. With each one of these challenges, he struggled at first, fell down but then figured it out, and now he was walking. Inspired by Theo’s first wobbly steps, I decided to overcome my discomfort with trying something new and asked a tech person to talk me through some of the basics of PowerPoint. I then gave my first fully digital lecture and realized immediately how much easier this new system was. I had a few glitches at first and on one occasion, my computer wasn’t compatible with a projector and I had to talk without images, but otherwise, I was thrilled to have made this technological leap – and I thank Theo for inspiring me to push myself.

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