So I had a presentation today organised by Phil Coogan, to talk to principals and ICT-people (of secondary schools) about Education - what worked, what didn't work, how I like to learn, etc.
I'd spent hours and hours preparing this presentation in Flash (I haven't counted, but I'd say over 500 frames over 5 scenes - the whole thing is over 1.5MB) and writing a speech (~8 pages) for the one hour presentation and 20 minute Q&A. I shouldn't have bothered.
I had a lot of help from my flatmates, clarifying my sentences and a lot of help from Raewyn to clarify my sentences/thoughts to make it understandable to the audience. This was priceless.
I ended up "winging" most of the presentation, because the audience asked a lot of questions - ones I had to answer off hand and overlapped with my presentation. This had good and bad points...
Good
- I felt more comfortable doing this, because it was more of a conversation
- It let me know what they were interested in and how they were interpreting my words
- It made me think more about what I was saying
- I'd spent all that time on my presentation and speech dammit!
- Missed some parts of speech that I thought were important
- Even though Phil said that their questions meant they were engaged, I am still not so sure because well, we students know what WE'RE doing when we're asking the teacher lots of questions (heh heh)
Anyway, some of the people in the audience asked if I would like to talk to their staff and I said that was all fine, etc... so hopefully there are prospects of more opportunity to "make a difference". I just have to make sure to keep communicating with students all the time, so I don't become some old fogey who thinks she "knows what's best for the kids". Urgh, I'm almost 20. Puke.
Anyway, they said it was interesting to hear it from my point of view, as a "successful student"... i.e. one that has gone through the system as a good statistic, one that all principals would want at their schools and they said that I was articulate, whereas most students wouldn't have been able to express themselves... REALLY? I think they underestimate their students! I mean, it's great that I get given these opportunities to speak, but it makes me feel really uncomfortable when they say things like that - do they really mean that? Or are they just saying it to be nice? This is one of those instances that I hope they were saying it to be nice because if they really meant that, then they still haven't changed their mindset to believe in every student and give them every available opportunity.
I'm getting really frustrated now because there is so much jargon all over the place when it comes to education - too many cliches that people think they understand, but don't. It's ironic really, because it's a lot like school - if you remember the keywords to write in your answer, it mostly doesn't matter whether you understand it or not. Haha.
Well everyone was really nice and I'm not going to judge them based on that short meeting. I am glad they made the effort to hear me and I am glad they are trying to improve education. I hope they are doing it for the children.
By the way, it's exams again so I'm super stressed as per usual - for what, I don't know, but it's hard to shake old habits you know, it's just safer this way. Is that being hypocritical? I don't know... but I mean to play the system, you have to be in the game... (hoo... more cliches...)
Filed Under : Education, Life, Technology, Presentations
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