atw: presentations

Irene and others,

The tricky thing is do you give it before or after you speak? << 

I never found this to be tricky, but there seem to be long debates about it.
I never really believed the "don't hand it out before you speak because
someone may read ahead" argument. I reckon it is best to hand out early, so
they can make notes as we go. Also, they can look at a neat diagram, rather
than the hastily drawn one, and so on.

I used to run a course on computer programming that ran for three or five
days. The first half day was me talking, building a diagram on the
whiteboard, and facilitating the conceptualisation of the key themes (did I
really just say that?) After that, I gave the handouts for the rest of the
course. If they read ahead, so what?

My OHP slides were often neat clean versions of basic diagrams, chunks of
code, and screen shots, so I could draw over them to highlight a point.

Of course, I also had slides with a list of key points on a topic - partly
so that I would not forget something!

I never worked out how to use PowerPoint to support a flexible presentation,
and I have never seen it done well.

If I was giving a straight lecture with no interruptions allowed, maybe, but
training courses don't go like that - well, not mine.

Someone always asks a question that you had not prepared for, so you made it
up from there on.

Someone always gives an example that you have never heard of, so with their
assistance, you work it through.

If I had a PC linked to a projector, we could 'try out' just about anything.
Powerpoint slides are really clumsy at doing that.

I have a friend who, in his computer engineering courses, had himself and a
few attendees 'acting out' the processing in the core of the computer. No, I
cannot explain how that went. He didn't mention Powerpoint being used.

_____________

Bob Trussler

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