U-Blog 5

With only two weeks to go until my group presents for the Lowman Home, I am trying to make sure that we have a smooth, concise, and do-able presentation. The other groups have had very sucessful workshops, giving us something to live up to but also hope that participants are interested and responding well to presentations.

In a preemptive effort to work to troubleshoot any possible problems our workshop could encounter, I plan to attend another groups presentation. I feel there are many benefits to attending another project. Firstly, I am terrible with directions. Getting to the location, no matter how early I leave, could possibly be very difficult. Attending a workshop before my groups ensures me that I will know how to get to the location and once there I will know I am in the correct room at Lowman Home Center. Anytime you have an important event at a place you have never been, say an interview or presentation, you should ensure you can get there, double checking direction is a responsible thing to do especially when you are the one at fault if you do not arrive.

Another benefit of attending a workshop prior to presenting our workshop is to ensure our workshop is set up. Since our workshop is for internet chat and we need to have AIM downloaded on the computers, I can ensure this has been done.

Preparing for this workshop is like preparing for meeting, interview, or presentation. Learning to think ahead and troubleshooting possible problems are important things to adapt yourself to. These skills are valuable in various real life future situations.

U- Blog 4

Speaking to your audience. I feel like this is the key component in effectively communicating. Gathering the information is a job anyone can accomplish, but to convey that knowledge onto others is another job entirely. After observing Dr. Norris’s workshop, I realized that captivating an audience’s attention is a necessary part of teaching a workshop, regardless of the subject matter.

Dr. Norris’s audience was high school students and his topic was computers and technology. As a person only a few years older than his target audience, I can appreciate the difficultly of teaching/lecturing on computers and technology to a generation who grew up with it. Our generation likes to claim technology as being part of our generation; we feel we know more about it than anyone else. Dr. Norris took the challenge and used modes of communication that were appreciated by high school student; he used the contemporary video website YouTube. Its success was inevitable. In combination with the popular website, Dr. Norris incorporated videos illustrating the futuristic technologies. The movie-like sneak preview of futuristic technologies entranced the young participants. The workshop was extremely successful as the students wrote down the YouTube video names to watch again from their home computers.

Our audience for the Lowman Home project couldn’t be more different than high school students. However, the principal of an audience absorbing material better when interested, remains true. I began to think of ways to interest the senior citizens in computers in general, not knowing our exact workshop topic. Having not taught a workshop in a while, I spoke to one of my professors, Dr. Chappell, who teaches an advance Professionals Masters of Business Administration course to upper-level business executives looking to get a Masters degree. I felt with their age and accelerated course schedule is resembled a workshop in many ways. I asked Dr. Chappell what his teaching strategy was to best convey his knowledge to his learners, he said, “After a long day, I feel that the last thing these executives want to do is listen to me drone on for three hours, I keep my class as high energy as I can.” I decided that the retirees at the Lowman Home would be more interested by an instructor honestly enthusiastic about their subject matter as well. Thinking of other ways to get the learners interested, incorporating easy games and relating every subject to their lives are other ways to keep participants actively processing and learning the information we are trying to communicate.

I feel the more we plan for the workshop the more error-proofing and trouble-shooting will be accomplished, and the better the workshop will run. The retirees at the Lowman Home will be most impressed and interested in a well prepared and thought through workshop.