To get over my fear of public speaking, I joined my high school debate team. I wasn’t a great debater but joining that club allowed me to get comfortable speaking in front of crowds. Still not great at smaller social gathering (that’s a work in progress), in front of an audience I’m okay.
3 things that work for me:
Know what you’re going to talk about but not exactly how you’re going to talk about it.
Have a “map” of your speech to know where the important points and how they connect.
Practice before, even if it’s just in your head. Aloud is best, but a quiet moment also okay.
These points have worked for me but I have also typed out entire talks when I had a time limit or was speaking on behalf of a group where the specifics of my speech were more important than the style.
I have bombed. I have been stiff and robotic. BUT I have also done well and gotten better over time. I won’t ever be a GREAT public speaker but I’ll get by.
I’m always on the look out for online tutorials that freely available. Vimeo’s Video School is good starting place for people looking for tips and explanation for most of the technical aspect of creating videos. From explaining different camera shots to how to storyboard to why pre-production is important, these short articles are written in clearly and get to the point. Check it out.
One of the advantages of hosting my own website is being able to experiment with a variety of tools, specifically those available for free (or low-cost). Without an upfront cost, I tried Drupal. It was incredibly difficult to use without any training so I deleted it (also didn’t need content management system YET). After taking a couple of online courses, I decided to give Moodle a try. I found much easier to use. In the last couple of days, I’ve started creating an outline and structure for a course. It needs a lot of work, but so far so good.
Learning Moodle is part of my continuing professional development. Every article about education states that online learning is the future, so to future-proof my skills, e-learning course design and facilitation is something I need to build.
So, if anyone reading this has any tips, or links, please send it along!
Johannes Jansson/norden.org [CC BY 2.5 dk], via Wikimedia CommonsI’m currently updating how I organize my classes, workshops, and training sessions. For a while, I was trying to do everything digitally, and it worked well enough but now I’m looking into a hybrid system using notebooks and digital records. I don’t want to duplicate my work but it’s sometimes difficult to get to a device to capture what’s happening and then I forget a detail. Writing in a notebook, or a chart/visual organizer, would allow me to capture what’s happening in front of me quickly.
I’m not a digital native. I incorporate technology into everything I do both professionally and personally but when I need to take notes, and remember what’s been said, I have an easier time recalling something if I’ve written down versus typing.
So, that’s where I’m at. How do I work efficiently? How do I make use of all the tools at my disposal?
While these articles don’t directly relate to digital storytelling they have lots of tips and tricks that make you consider different styles, strategies, and concepts when creating a story, especially regarding the practical skills.
I read articles predicting trends that discuss what skills are necessary for the 21st Century work force. In a standard class, with learners who have basic computer skills, I focus on the basic employment skills (using basic Office features, writing good email, using search engines effectively, understanding what “the cloud” is, etc.) and some creative stuff as well (taking good pictures, poetry, etc.).
I always have difficult explaining the importance of being able to use social media in the modern workplace. Even in looking for jobs, having a semi-private Facebook profile is a good thing and an updated LinkedIn profile is a plus even if you’re industry doesn’t hire directly from there.
What I have found is many entry-level position still require some sort of traditional resume either through an online portal OR via email. Instruction becomes a balance between the immediate skills need to look for work and the long term skill-building that will help growth.
So social media instruction becomes more about digital citizenship rather than effective marketing or development techniques. I’m going to continue thinking about this topic but this is where I stand at the moment.
One of the most difficult things I find doing is balancing between everything I want to do and what I can realistically do. It’s easy to become overwhelmed. I know because it’s happened to me recently. So I’ve set out some guidelines for myself to keep the balance. Here’s the first
Lists, lists, lists
I’ve never had much of a memory for sequences. Spelling and telephone numbers always gave me trouble. Thankfully technology has been able to help me greatly both in recent years. Scheduling, however, is still struggle with daily. I use my calendar to give me all the details regarding every meeting, class, and workshop I’ve got to attend or run. Notifications pop up on my phone reminding me of important due dates (and birthdays).
With more experience, I know this balancing act will become slightly easier.
With a week break from my usual routine, I’m taking this week to write a series of posts. There’s no theme, just thoughts I’ve been considering for a while.
I’m an instructor in a couple of adult literacy program. Currently, my focus has been on numeracy (math). In my classes, there are usually 10-16 adults working a wide variety of basic math skills (decimals, fractions, percent, ratio, geometry, etc.). Over the years I’ve moved to a “package” system where I give the learners a small package of work on a specific skills for them to work on at their own pace. I found that this practice in several other classes I have an supply instructor it. I usually mark their work as they go, and double check everything when they complete the package. I have a series of assessments (tests, assignments, etc.) to prepare them for the ministry-mandate assessment. This system works because it’s a low stress environment and learners have sense of progress without feeling overwhelmed.
It’s not a perfect system but seems to work well enough. It does, however, require that I have packages ready, sorted, and organized before. Also means I need to have specific plan in place for what skills are necessary. I also can’t plan too far ahead because sometimes there are gaps in a learner’s knowledge that aren’t obvious.
I avoided creating a system until recently because I wanted to able to adapt the order I gave out the packages based upon learner’s needs but now there are just too many different files to keep track. So I’m going to create a simple checklist template. This would also let me give something out to the
I just finished a four-day digital storytelling working. These workshops take a lot out of me because it’s short days (six hours) but it seems like i’m consistently being pulled in every direction. I’ve been slowly coming up with a couple of guidelines to help me keep things under control.
Set a maximum number of participants.
This is very important. After several workshops, I think the maximum number of participants I can handle is 7-8. Anymore than that and I can’t help everyone create a quality product / experience. With any additional volunteers/facilitators, I can easily add more people, even if the other facilitators only work one or two people.
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare (then be ready to scrap it all)
So even after doing this several times, I’m always finding myself taking time before I start to revise the schedule, re-write presentations and handouts, and visualize the best possible program. Some times these changes work well, other times I return to the old ways. Several times this week I changed my plans midstream. I hadn’t counted on starting the week being sick or that additional time would be necessary during the script writing process. Both of these things put us a half day behind schedule, but the participants were eager so we were able to finish the stories on time.
Reflection
I’m trying to get better at accepting outside advice, but it’s difficult mid-session. After I’m done, however, I spend some time writing up a reflection of the workshop; what worked and what didn’t. It lets me refine my style and schedule. It also lets me see what skills/knowledge I need to upgrade.
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