by Janice Florent
In his book “Brain Rules”, John Medina, cognitive psychologist and University of Washington professor, suggests the time limit of an audience before zoning out is about ten minutes. Given this short attention span, what can you do to keep an audience engaged?
To address this problem, some educators are beginning to take this timing to heart, stopping to give students the opportunity to think-pair-share, answer questions, discuss what they just learned or project what's coming next.
In a recent article, Dr. Lynell Burmark, winner of Stanford University’s prestigious Walter Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching, lists three tips to enhance presentations. One tip is the use of pictures, like the well-known poster above, as a way to ask questions. For example, toward the end of a class period, project the image and then assign as homework to find out everything students can about it, including who the woman was and what she represents in the image.
Another tip is to compare and contrast. Display (and annotate) images side-by-side while small groups of students discuss those similarities and differences.
Lastly, Dr. Burmark suggests you take video breaks. These breaks can be used to show illustrative videos.
For more information, read Dr. Burmark's article, “3 Tips to Caffeinate Teacher and Student Presentations.”