Chris Anderson is the curator of the TED Conference, which I have referred to numerous times, and which is the source of the astoundingly popular TED Talks available online for free. In an interview with Charlie Rose, he discusses a bit of the history behind TED as well as the 18-minute format and other things. About half way through the interview, Charlie Rose asks a very poignant question: “What have you learned about the ability to communicate?”

Chris’s response contains a number of important points for everyone who needs to communicate important information, especially teachers.

Tell Dramatic Stories

The TED Talks format resembles the ancient practice of telling stories around a campfire. For ages before modern civilization, families and tribes would gather around a campfire and share stories that would connect on a deep level with each other. These stories, he says, “send fireworks exploding in the brains of everyone in the audience.”

Ancient Storytelling – Photo Credit: Flickr User ihave3kids

How different from the gazed looks often found on the faces of high school and college students! Could telling stories be an answer to improving the attention of students in the classroom? In his book, Brain Rules, John Medina explains that stories elicit emotions which have a large impact on retention. What is so impressive about TED, is that these 18 minute talks are viewed hundreds of thousands of times a day by people all over the world. Now that is a captive audience! Stories can be used in the classroom to grab attention, illustrate a point, or encourage reflective thinking.

Be Transparent

Chris says that those who want to puff themselves up tend to “switch off the audience.” But people who allow themselves to feel vulnerable, who are honest and transparent about who they are, look audience members in the eye, and share their passion are able to connect with their audience. This level of connection, he suggests, actually involves neurons firing in the audience member which mirror the neurons in the speaker.

Teachers expend enormous amounts of effort trying to help their students give a damn and see things from their point of view. Unfortunately, this often manifests itself in the form of hour long lectures about a topic that students struggle to relate to. Relinquishing the desire to appear intelligent and academic allows you to become accessible to those you are trying to teach.

Simplify

“A lot of people are brilliant but get lost in jargon.” Empathy is a necessary characteristic for a presenter to have if he or she wants to connect to and communicate with an audience. Most effective presenters have developed the skill of simplifying their material so that it is clear enough for everyone to understand it without dumbing it down too much. Similarly, teachers must have the presence of mind to know when they are using vocabulary that is above the comprehension level of those they are teaching, and the ability to rephrase the information using words appropriate to the experience and knowledge of their students.

You can view the entire interview here: http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/11483

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

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.

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