Visual capturing and sharing of themes for training purposes

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Permalink Reply by Dave Bartek on March 5, 2010 at 6:31am

Great stuff! I have watched different involvement patterns and adapted them to what I call: 1-2-4 more
To help overcome hesitancy and let people get their bearings, ease them into exercises. Warn them they will be doing it, give clear instructions, and let them put a few notes down, next step is to discuss it with a partner. Naturally, you then move to a team and if you want to larger, even much larger, groups. Very interesting dynamics from participant and teacher sides. I think it is easy for facilitators to assume they won't lose people, and I have often seen folks just disengage when it is too much.. this gradual approach can ease them in easier.
On the digital camera, YES! I get people hitting their heads all the time and going Dooh!! like Homer Simpson when I pull mine out. Look at Whiteboard Photo as a great tool to clean them up. Then, you can put them in a powerpoint which works as a wonderful anchor for those who where there at the session.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Clark on March 6, 2010 at 4:04am

Thanks Dave, and also for the software tip. This could be helpful in capturing the essence of some of the small-group conversations that go on during my workshops. For example, I'm currently experimenting with a World Café approach to some of the student activities, including conversations early in the workshop about what makes scientific writing ineffective and what makes it effective. This typically generates masses of ideas and stories of experiences that everyone can build on.

Part of my difficulty is simply a practical one. We often have no access even to flipcharts, let alone white boards --- just old-fashioned blackboards and chalk!

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Permalink Reply by Chris Chopyak on April 24, 2010 at 5:29am

Hello Sarah - I just did a programme for MBS students at Kellog Business School (Northwestern University) to exlore how to get more engagement and impact in presentations. While this is a little different than scientific writing, I want to affirm that your instinct on including hand-drawn visuals is right on.

In Slide-ology and PresentationZen - two great resources about designing and presenting; they mention and cite "analog" non-digital components, as ways that actually spark different parts of our brain helping us to engage, inspire replication (others want also to draw), and re-contexting of learning - seeing new things emerge where there may have been just one dimension. At another worksho with educators in October - we used a visual template to help the attendees process and discern what they learned (this sorting of information is getting harder and harder for people to do by the way as we get bombarded by morre technology and information). Once they wrote down all their key learnings, they then reflected back on what was waiting for them at home - what needs to be addressed; what needs my attention. Then i asked what are 1-2 things you learned (llok at the section) that you could use to address what needs getting done at home. This finer focusing was relief-giving to the participants. They had focus, they had a tool, they had an answer for "Monday" when they got home; and they had actually synthesized what they had learned. Very rewarding to experience with them.

For training in particular, I can see alot of application in the delivery, the absorption and the what's next part - how do I make this programme actually work for me. i would love to see more about this work you are doing and hope we can next week in Geneva!

Best - Chris

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Clark on April 26, 2010 at 1:00am

Hello Chris,

Thanks for your thoughts on this! I know PresentationZen well but will search out Slide-ology.

Two things strike me from your comments. One is the point about inspring others to want to draw. I want to work more on this as people's own visual representations of learnings will mean a lot more to them. Drawing in front of participants in a workshop (and not just projecting slides containing hand-drawn elements) can help people get this inspiration. Being a relative newcomer to graphic recording and the like, I've been a bit tentative in drawing "live" but have done it a bit at the start of a workshop when describing learning methods, e.g. showing the curve of % retention of what one reads, hears, sees, says and does with accompanying sketches of faces/people. That definitely makes others think that they can draw too... But there is also a very practical, logistic requirement: making sure participants have easy access to the wherewithal to create their own drawings (pens, flipchart paper etc.). It seems obvious, but is not always easy to arrange!

Secondly, the combination of classic templates (that help structure thinking) with visual elements that capture the ideas is very powerful. I've always used a lot of mainly word- and space-based templates to help students sort and structure ideas, something often identified as especially useful in feedback after the workshop. But adding in drawings (both mine and the students') superimposes another dimension. I would like to see some research on how/how much this facilitates learning and the application of learning.

I've another scientific writing workshop coming up in late May, so will experiment further. And yes, I'd also love to exchange more ideas on this when we meet in Geneva.

Bis bald, Sarah

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