[Year 12 SofDev] Presenters / workshops - feedback

[Adrian Janson]

Hi everyone (and apologies for the cross posts - and the rant!),

 

I wanted to email the lists as VITTA President and make a comment regarding
some of the discuss of the quality of presenters giving workshops.  This was
prompted by a discussion on the IT Apps list - but I won't discuss that
issue directly.

 

Speaking personally, I can easily recall times that I have attended
presentations and found the presenter to be awful or the content to be
sub-par.  I have also attended presentations that have been awesome and
inspirational - and many that have fallen between these extremes.  The
number of bad presentations I have attended has been few I am glad to say -
and has often been the result of poor preparation, a blatant sales pitch
with no content or lack of interest.

 

An observation I would make about these presentations and their quality is
that there is no accurate predictor for who will be a good presenter - and
it is certainly dangerous to make generalisations based on any sort of
stereotype or pre-conception.  For example, I would not dismiss a presenter
based on their school, gender, status in the educational community or role.
If a presenter does have a number of credentials, I feel it is important to
recognise that this person has earned them - and that they know something
about the topic they are delivering - and that they probably have a great
deal to offer you in sharing what they know.

 

If you think that I am a horrible presenter and I have nothing to offer you
- fine - so be it - but please make that judgement based on what you have
personally experienced and not a gut reaction to my credentials.

 

I think that presenters put themselves 'out there' and I certainly don't
want any of you to be discouraged to present in any way.  It's all about
sharing our ideas with each other - and VITTA / this community thrives on
sharing and collaboration.

 

I am sorry for the rant - but I felt that this needed to be said.  I am very
happy to take comments off list or if you are insulted by my statements -
feel free to email / call me - more than happy to discuss.

 

Cheers,.

Adrian

 

Adrian Janson

VITTA President

Director of ICT, Melbourne High School


Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If received in error, please contact us and delete all copies. Before opening or using attachments check them for viruses and defects. Regardless of any loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender or not, resulting directly or indirectly from the use of any attached files our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender, and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/sofdev/attachments/20100316/dedd106a/attachment.html