Today, we gave our first presentation at Mahidol. My colleague and I were a bit nervous! Our topic was classroom assessment techniques. We arrived at the university early to review each of our parts. We had already seen our presentation room, and felt comfortable with the technology and set-up. Our bigggest concern was related to content. Would we present material that was familiar to our participants? Would there be challenges with language? Would attendees be comfortable with participating in our interactive activities?
As we prepared, we developed back up plans for each of our questions. We'd assess our learners' level of knowledge with an initial individual activity. We would allow participants to work on their own and in groups as a way to promote participation. Working with one of our administrative support contacts, we were able to get handouts made for each of our participants. We struggled between printing out the whole PowerPoint (considering that most of our participants may have trouble with English) and giving a simple handout that included activities for the classroom.
We arrived at our presentation room 15 minutes early, as the staff was setting up the AV equipment. Unfortunately, there was a little trouble with the LCD projector, but after a time, they were able to get it up and running. Our participants trickled in slowly. By the end of the presentation, we had about 15 faculty join us. They were very interested in incorporating active learning into their classrooms. At the same time, the group mentioned concerns about both time and effectiveness. My colleague and I shared data on both concerns, and encouraged the faculty to come to our presentations next week. Each attendee participated, and many stayed after to ask questions and discuss techniques. I hope next week proves to be just as productive!
Now, off to Koh Samui for some R&R.
No comments:
Post a Comment