Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks . . . if They Want to Learn
Anyone who has been in education for any length of time has come across the concept of varied “learning styles” and the need to incorporate these styles into lesson planning. Way too many people, however, don’t really understand this. My high school students, for example, sometimes told me that they couldn’t learn something “the way I was teaching it” because I wasn’t using their preferred learning style. I was lecturing, they said, and because they were visual learners it was impossible for them to comprehend what I was trying to get across. I used to tell them that it was important to understand their own preferred learning style, not because this knowledge gave them permission to ignore information that came to them through a different channel, but because this knowledge could help them figure out ways to process the information in their preferred way. It is meant to be a tool, not an excuse.
When you teach “seasoned” adults (I love that term), you have to recognize that they have honed their learning style preferences over their (sometimes long) lifespans. At a time in their lives when they realize that their time is shorter than it used to be, they approach the acquisition of new information through their well-developed awareness of what works for them and what doesn’t. An instructor for an Osher class has to be aware of the need to incorporate as many different learning styles as possible so that as many class members as possible have a good experience in the class. Unlike younger students, who are often pursuing a degree or licensure that will lead to career success, seasoned adults approach learning for its own sake. If it’s not providing them with what they need, they simply go away. We don’t want them to go away – people who are angry or disappointed about a program don’t enroll for subsequent semesters and they discourage their friends and neighbors from enrolling – but we hope to provide enough courses that do meet their needs and expectations so that they will continue to take classes.
Just as a side note – it is not always easy to persuade people that alternative learning styles are a valid approach to learning. Because people who enter the field of education have generally done well in school themselves, and because education has typically valued (and focused on) traditional learning through lectures, educators have been slow to understand that not everyone learns this way. Many Osher members reminisce about being in school, saying “I hated history in high school – it was so boring – but now when I go to Osher classes I enjoy it so much more and actually remember what I’ve been taught.” They often think it’s because they’re being entertained (often pejoratively described) rather than being “taught” (always said with greater approval). The best learning happens despite the class members’ intentions. In a great classroom, members of the class are drawn in because they can’t help it.
I’m thinking about this today because I met with a new Osher instructor yesterday afternoon to help her with her PowerPoint presentation. Many people who want to teach in this program are already reasonably skilled in the art of designing slides for their presentations. However, some folks come to us intending to lecture (the way their college professors did or perhaps the way they did throughout their long academic careers) but recognize the need to appeal to an audience that simply doesn’t want to listen to someone talk for two hours.
PowerPoint (or other slide creation programs) allow an instructor to provide visual and auditory stimulation while the instructor is conveying the information they want to get across. Now, I know we’ve all sat through slide presentations in which the slides simply provided bullet points of text while the presenter read the slides to the audience. That’s not a good way to engage an audience. The best presentations focus on some kind of graphic (an image, chart, or map) while the presenter speaks to the image. It’s even better when the presenter incorporates audio or video clips that activate another part of the brain. Research has shown that the more parts of the brain a presenter engages, the greater the retention of information. If you can get people talking or interacting, even better. This isn’t easy, especially in a large lecture class. But even these lectures can be broken up by giving class members a couple of minutes to turn to someone near them and react to one statement or ask one question. Then, the instructor draws them back together, asking a general question such as “How many of you talked about [this aspect]” or “How many of you agreed that your experiences with [this topic] were similar?” This doesn’t take too much time or derail the presentation, but it reengages people who may have decided it’s naptime (a common problem when you teach seasoned adults after lunch) or who have begun creating tomorrow’s grocery list or texting a sick family member.
We all also know that this can be overdone. Overly dramatic swooping, pulsing, or other visual effects of text or images soon becomes annoying. Listeners quickly tire of the letter-by-letter appearance of the text (sometimes accompanied by annoying typing sounds). People who are using presentation programs for the first time often get carried away by the possibilities, adorning their material with so many side effects that the presentation overwhelms the content.
When I got together with the new instructor yesterday, a couple of things were immediately clear: she had thought deeply about her presentation so she knew what she wanted to do, and she was already a skilled user of Microsoft Word. This means that all she had to do was figure out how her Word skills transfer to PowerPoint. In a couple of hours, I had shown her specific ways of accessing the full utility of the program, and she was on her way to getting her presentation onto slides. I told her she can email me with any questions as she moves forward. We’ll probably meet once more so she can do a dry run of her presentation to troubleshoot any last-minute glitches.
I enjoy doing this kind of thing. It’s satisfying to see the results of a presentation I’ve helped with when the course evaluations come in after the end of the class. It’s not often that the slides themselves are mentioned in the evaluation. If our collaboration has been successful, the slides are merely a tool, not the star of the show. But when the evaluations mention that the course was interesting, or that the material was well-organized, or that the class members came away thinking that they would recommend this class or this instructor to other Osher members, I feel like the job was well done.
People who are comfortable with PowerPoint don’t arrive at that point by some kind of magic. My own situation is a good example of “learning by doing.” I used the program (in a rudimentary fashion) while I was teaching. At the beginning of my career, the preferred presentation format was a slideshow (remember the little carousel?) or transparencies and either erasable or permanent markers. Sometimes I could color-code my transparencies by using different colored markers, and sometimes I was able to copy an image onto a transparency. The plastic melted if you used the wrong kind of transparency film in the copier. I’m not going to tell you how I know that.
Over the last 10 years of my career, I began to use PowerPoint. My skills were rudimentary at best. At first, I had to provide my own projector – it was only in the last few years I taught that projector systems were installed in classrooms. I was able to buy my projector with an unexpected influx of cash at Christmas in 2010, when my mother decided to give money to family members. My unexpected check was just enough to buy my projector. I still have it and cart it around with me when I do presentations at various community functions.
PowerPoint users improve their skills through conscious efforts to do so. I have taken a couple of Osher classes about how to use PowerPoint, and I have the book PowerPoint for Dummies. It sports colorful sticky-note tabs on important pages and is adorned with more than a few coffee stains. I no longer keep it on my desk, but it’s not far away. In addition, there are YouTube video explainers about everything you want to do on PowerPoint. Anyone who truly wants to become more skilled at PowerPoint can accomplish this by plugging away at it and using a combination of these two types of ready assistance to do pretty much anything they want with a presentation. I’m confident that the instructor I worked with yesterday will do a terrific job with her presentation, and I look forward to her success as an instructor for years to come.
Old dogs can learn new tricks if they want to learn.