The first installment in my Amazing Lecture Series comes from a well-known and controversial individual. From the YouTube description:

Oxford professor Richard Dawkins presents a series of lectures on life, the universe, and our place in it. With brilliance and clarity, Dawkins unravels an educational gem that will mesmerize young and old alike. Illuminating demonstrations, wildlife, virtual reality, and special guests (including Douglas Adams) all combine to make this collection a timeless classic. The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures for Children were founded by Michael Faraday in 1825, with himself as the inaugural lecturer. The 1991 lecturer was Richard Dawkins whose five one-hour lectures, originally televised by the BBC, are now available free online, courtesy of The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Wherever you stand on the issue of Evolution vs. Intelligent Design, and no matter your religious beliefs (Dawkins is a militant atheist), it is difficult to deny that Richard Dawkins has prepared and delivered an amazing lecture. Dawkins elaborates upon the theory of evolution in five installments, each building upon the content of the previous lectures. While he doesn’t have the most exciting personality, or energetic voice, he does use a wide variety of teaching tools to compensate. Yes, he uses slides, but very few. He also uses toy dinosaurs, live snakes & bugs, microscopes, guest speakers, paintings, videos, fossils, lasers, smoke, and more! Students are frequently asked to participate, not just by answering questions, but by coming to the front of the class and performing a task that illustrates or demonstrates an important point, such as working a scanning electron microscope.

Of course, Dr. Dawkins isn’t quite perfect. The authenticity of his lecture would benefit if he relied less on his notes and spoke more naturally and spontaneously. Yet, it is obvious that the amount of preparation that went into 5 hours of classroom lecture far exceeded the average for college professors. Teachers would improve their lectures by implementing only a fraction of the teaching tools employed in this series.

You can watch the full series here: Growing up in the Universe

I’m running the tech for an educators’ meeting this morning (I wasn’t involved in the preparation of this presentation). As is customary, the presenter provided their PowerPoint slides as handouts to the attendees. These were printed the day before, but the presenter mentioned to me that she had made some quick changes last night.

A few minutes in, she advanced to a slide that wasn’t in the handout. I underestimated the repercussions – nearly every attendee began flipping through the handout searching for the elusive missing slide! Their attention was completely diverted from the presenter – who either didn’t notice or didn’t think to explain that the slide was missing from their handouts.

To add to the disruption, I was controlling a pre-loaded version of the presentation for a webcast. I also received the slides before the edits, and was not sure whether I skipped a slide, missed a slide, or what!

This is just another example of the drawbacks to providing handouts to the audience before the presentation. It is better to prepare a proper document to accompany the presentation (not just a copy of the slides) and provide it after the presentation.

As a self-admitted, die hard, Apple fan-boy, it feels a bit strange for me to recommend a talk by the chairman of one of Apple’s biggest rivals. But I respect improvement, and from what I’ve seen of Bill Gates, he is my top pick for Most Improved in the area of presentation skills.

Take a quick look at this image from when he was still running Microsoft:

Bill Gates' presentations used to suffer from poorly designed slides

Not only is that slide horrendous, cluttered, and pretty much incomprehensible, but his delivery was in no way engaging, entertaining, or inspiring. Now take a look at these images from his recent talk at TED 2011 in Monterey, CA.

Bill Gates speaking at TED University 2011

The slides used in this presentation are very well designed, with an attractive and subtle background, one main idea per slide, and no bullet points. Even though the subject of the presentation is about the boring and technical topic of state budgets, the design didn’t suffer the usual fate of dry, stiff presentation.

Not only does he now have great slides, but his delivery was much improved. He appears comfortable on stage, doesn’t fidget or move around unnecessarily, speaks clearly at a comfortable pace, and even uses humor appropriately. Bill Gates has now given 3 talks at TED that I know of, and all of them have been at this caliber. It appears as thought Bill has taken the time to prepare the content of his talks, put forth the effort to design them well (or, more likely, the money to hire someone to design them), and accepted help from a speaking coach.

Slide design and presentation skills aside, this talk is also very relevant to teachers based on it’s content – state budgets and how they affect education. The message is timely and important – we need to pay more attention to state budget and expenditures, because the effect on education is great.

Please take 10 minutes to watch this talk and think about what you can learn from a reformed presenter.

You can watch or download this talk on TED.com

When you have the time, be sure to see the other two TED Talks he has given.

Innovating to Zero

Mosquitos, Malaria, and Education

Today, Prezi announced the winner of its iPad Contest. I am excited by the results, but also slightly concerned.

The contest asked participants to create a Prezi presentation that would answer the question “iPad + Prezi = ?” in an effort to explore the possibilities of using the new Prezi for iPad app. New technology is always exciting and – like many teachers and students – my first thoughts go towards how it can be used in the classroom. I viewed all 7 finalists for the competition and nearly all of them mentioned using Prezi + iPad in some educational setting.

I especially liked Derek Jones’ presentation which explored using Prezi for iPad in various combinations, such as using one iPad to browse various presentations, or using multiple iPads to interact with the teacher’s presentation. Check out this concept from his presentation: While a teacher is lecturing, a question can be shown on the projector screen while the possible answers are shown on the students’ iPad screens. Each student can then respond on their iPad. How awesome is that?!

Concept: Use Prezi + iPad as a quiz & feedback tool in the classroom

While this functionality is not yet possible with Prezi, it is this conceptual thinking that drives technology forward and makes it worthwhile to explore it’s use in the classroom.

The winner, by popular vote, of the Prezi + iPad contest was Will Gibbs, a History teacher in Philadelphia. Will’s presentation also encourages the exploration of using new technologies in the classroom and emphasizes the importance of teachers and private companies in moving forward and revolutionizing the tools available for education. In particular, he mentions the use of tests that haven’t changed in 30 years! While I agree with Will that “there is far too much stagnancy in our educational institutions right now,” his presentation also suggests a viewpoint that I have heard more and more from teachers, that greatly concerns me. Evidently, some people think that using old technology is ridiculous.

I completely disagree that all old technology must die!

There seems to be a fear from some teachers that if they are not using the most current and up to date tools in their classroom that they themselves may become defunct, lose touch with their students, and fail as a teacher. This is not true!

Yes, teachers need to be flexible and willing to try new things as they are available to them, and new technology is one of the greatest ways to get student attention and encourage students to actively participate. But this doesn’t mean that it is ridiculous to use tools such as overheads, chalkboards, and dioramas in the classroom today. Sure, updated versions such as document cameras and whiteboards might be better, and allowing students to create stop-motion film or podcasts are a great alternative. But sometimes paper and pencil are just more effective than handing out 20 iPads for the students to sketch on.

We need to use technology that is proven to be effective, not just technology that is new!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?