Colleen Grandy

What are some things you could do in a presentation to ensure you would not engage your audience?

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Some Background Info...
Course: Business Communication (introductory, first-year university course)
Topic: Presentation Skills (about 10 weeks into a 15-week course)
Learning outcome: Develop and deliver purposeful, audience-oriented presentations
Purpose: To share prior knowledge/experiences with presentations and to use as a reflection tool later in the course when students are creating their own presentations.

Last term, I prompted students to share examples of presentations they liked and discuss why they liked them in a discussion forum. It ended up being a huge notice-board of links to cool presentations, but then it just sat there. It didn’t generate much discussion, it felt disconnected from course, and I think it made some students terrified to think that they had to sound like their favourite TED presenters by the end of the course. I’ve been guilty of using the “discussion forum” as a catch-all for different types of activities, without always being clear with students (or myself) on the purpose.

Next week, I hope to borrow from the first example in this course. I like the “Making Space with TRIZ” activity. As a chronic over-thinker, I found it refreshing to be invited into the topic in a way that didn't require me to craft a lengthy response in order to engage.

I can see how we could use the “worst results” to help later in the course when students are creating their own presentations. They could reflect back on their generated list and have (maybe another?) discussion about strategies to make sure they don’t fall into the traps they’ve seen before.

It just seems like a safe, fun place to start!

Two questions I'm hung up on this Halloween: 

1. Other than by creating super engaging activities, how do you encourage participation in your community building activities? This question came up in Tara and Hillarie's sharing and feedback posts/threads. Do you grade community building activities? Do you ask for (or require?) a specific level of participation? I usually try to invite, but not require, participation in these types of activities  - and even this sometimes can make an activity feel forced.  How do you find requiring participation or evaluating community building affects it?
   
   
2. Do you mostly look for visible connections (comments, conversations, likes, tags etc.) as evidence of community? Can community exist without this evidence? How else might you see (or feel?) community? 

Eeek - I only have one draft and it's a bit of a stream-of-conscious-free-write. It definitely isn't where I want it to be yet, but I'm grateful for having the chance to start it and I'm committing to sharing what I have so far. I think I'm experiencing the vagueness Gina mentioned. I hover in two positions - faculty support, and teaching business communication online. I don't think I've catered this to reflect either practice well, so still lots to do!

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I used to think I knew what it meant to be an excellent student.

Rarely challenged, evaluated almost exclusively on my ability to write, I coasted through the K-12 system and flew through university with full scholarships. I once thought I did well because I worked harder than everyone else. I was wrong.

I am the only child of two working professionals who read to me every night when I was little, who hired a tutor for me when my Grade 12 Chemistry mark fell below 85%, and who supported me financially throughout my post-secondary learning. I am able-bodied. English is my first language. I can follow directions. I am cis-gender. My skin is white. I could go on.

It wasn't until after my graduate degree, when I went back to school to study education, that I felt challenged. I checked my privilege for the first time. I acknowledged the power structures and hegemonic systems that contributed to my successes. For the first time, I recognized that I didn't work harder than everyone else. I learned to critically reflect. I learned to situate myself. It was hard. It was wonderful.

I recognized that what had made me an "excellent" student did not make me a well-rounded learner, and if I tried to replicate only my student experience in my future classrooms, it had the potential to make me a dangerous instructor. I was humbled and scared. I still am.

I'm also grateful. It was only through being a student of teaching, that I began to do the very hard and messy work of learning. (need more here)

For me, teaching is learning. It is co-learning alongside students. It is making space for listening. It is making space for self-discovery, critical reflection, and community. It is making space for learning to happen in ways that honour diverse histories and ways of knowing and being. It is questioning systems that privilege only certain experiences and ideas. It is being as open and accessible possible. It is indefinable without knowing your learners. It is a process of continual reinvention and growth. 

In my digital and physical classrooms... where I... something more about access, authentic assessment, critical reflection, community, collaboration, hopes, dreams, utopian future... :) I'll pick an audience and get there someday!

Some quotations I like and might use:

“The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.” (Mark Van Doren)

“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ” (Paulo Freire)

“When everyone in the classroom, teacher and students, recognizes that they are responsible for creating a learning community together, learning is at its most meaningful and useful.”  (bell hooks)

It’s Day 5, and we’re almost there! What a supportive and idea-filled four days. You are amazing humans!

If sticking to a suggested timeline makes your life easier, today you might want to:

1. Review the fabulous community building activities submitted to the Sharing & Feedback Forum and offer some specific, constructive feedback.
   
   
2. Reflect on feedback you’ve received and refine your draft activities.
   
   
3. Continue any conversations that you feel need continuing (in the Open Forum, in the Sharing and Feedback Forum, or even way back in the Situating Activity).
   
   
4. Ask or answer any final burning questions in the Open Forum.
   
   
5. Pat yourself on the back for sticking with it this far!

Happy Friday,

Colleen, Gina, and Sylvia

Today is bursting with possibilities – because it is the proposed start of the Creation Phase!

Some folks have already rocketed through to sharing and feedback and others are saying “hello” for the first time. We’re all going at our own pace – the beauty of asynchronous learning - but are we building community? Feeling connected?

If you are joining in today, welcome! Consider situating yourself. If you are you in a different place than you were when you started the course, consider re-situating. As of this morning, “learner” is appearing largest in our communal tag cloud. Does this seem right to you?

Thoughts? Share anything, anytime in the Open forum. 

Your facilitators, 
Sylvia, Gina, and Colleen

via GIPHY