https://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/r.m.ferguson/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/gillc.jpg
Hey, I’m blogging Gill while she’s giving her talk. It was a tad complicated getting my laptop to take the photo, then getting it cropped and here via iphoto, but it does work.
Gill’s talking about ehr data analysis, and she’s got some images up that were taken with the pda. They come up very well on screen, particularly the lower one which has become quite Monet-esque.
Lots of people in the session taking notes. Those with laptops have them closed except for a couple of people – but they seem to be concentrating on the talk even so, so I reckon it’s going pretty well. Gill has got the room with her – they all laughed together at ‘The Mushroom Challenge’.
I think it’s distracting for Gill to have her talk up on a computer screen in front of her, because she looks at it a lot, which she wouldn’t if it were on the screen behind her. It’s also keeping her in one place, she’s always by the computer terminal, whereas I think otherwise she’d move around more. When she’s not looking at the screen she Gill is using arm gestures, and I think this sort of expression works well in a talk, because it seems more naturalistic and it keeps you talking at normal talking speed rather than speeding up as you are tempted to do in a talk.
Phebe asked if anything would motivate participants. Money? Chocolate biscuits? Gill thinks a deeper engagement with the subject matter.
What would your top tip be? Don’t use Caerus! Quitte frustrating to make the trail with Caerus. Creatascape might be a better option.
Smiling at the audience and laughing along with the audience obviously works well.