http://genealogyeducation.wordpress.com/2006/03/14/using-props-in-teaching-and-lecturing/ for educators, event organizers and the curious Sat, 03 Jan 2009 16:39:15 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 http://genealogyeducation.wordpress.com/2006/03/14/using-props-in-teaching-and-lecturing/#comment-175 Sally Jacobs Wed, 22 Mar 2006 02:17:49 +0000 http://genealogyeducation.wordpress.com/2006/03/14/using-props-in-teaching-and-lecturing/#comment-175 I'm an archivist who teaches workshops on how to properly care for photographs. My favorite prop is something I use to illustrate how fragile digital is as a storage medium...and how digital can fail totally, completely, catastrophically. I accidentally killed our external hard drive when I knocked it off a table. (It only had backup files on it, so I didn't lose anything but the money I spent to buy it.) During class I plug it in and turn it on. It makes a terrible noise that I hope students remember for a long, long time. I’m an archivist who teaches workshops on how to properly care for photographs. My favorite prop is something I use to illustrate how fragile digital is as a storage medium…and how digital can fail totally, completely, catastrophically. I accidentally killed our external hard drive when I knocked it off a table. (It only had backup files on it, so I didn’t lose anything but the money I spent to buy it.) During class I plug it in and turn it on. It makes a terrible noise that I hope students remember for a long, long time.

]]> http://genealogyeducation.wordpress.com/2006/03/14/using-props-in-teaching-and-lecturing/#comment-169 Martin Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:21:53 +0000 http://genealogyeducation.wordpress.com/2006/03/14/using-props-in-teaching-and-lecturing/#comment-169 Some interesting thoughts here Ken. I teach psychology at University here in the UK, and I also do a bit of teaching new teachers how to teach. I think the important issue about props is that they act as a focus. They can point students to the areas and issues that we want them to concentrate on. Talk alone is only words. Words come and then they're gone. But a good prop, a good image is something that seems to shape ideas and somehow has a permanence in memory; as you said - giving a concrete representation of the abstract. The key to good "propping" (I think) is appropriateness. Today I see many colleagues embracing the all powerful PowerPoint presentation as a key feature in their teaching. And I've got nothing against that, but I see many classes where getting a good set of interesting images together seems to be the target rather than shaping the learning experience of the students. I have been to a colleague's lecture recently which used almost 60 slides for a 45 minute talk, and most of the slides were at best tangential to the words, and seemed to tell a different story. Students spent most of the time trying to work out which of the competing narratives was more interesting, and failed to grasp the point of either. Some interesting thoughts here Ken. I teach psychology at University here in the UK, and I also do a bit of teaching new teachers how to teach. I think the important issue about props is that they act as a focus. They can point students to the areas and issues that we want them to concentrate on. Talk alone is only words. Words come and then they’re gone. But a good prop, a good image is something that seems to shape ideas and somehow has a permanence in memory; as you said – giving a concrete representation of the abstract. The key to good “propping” (I think) is appropriateness. Today I see many colleagues embracing the all powerful PowerPoint presentation as a key feature in their teaching. And I’ve got nothing against that, but I see many classes where getting a good set of interesting images together seems to be the target rather than shaping the learning experience of the students. I have been to a colleague’s lecture recently which used almost 60 slides for a 45 minute talk, and most of the slides were at best tangential to the words, and seemed to tell a different story. Students spent most of the time trying to work out which of the competing narratives was more interesting, and failed to grasp the point of either.

]]>