No. 552, October 9, 2006

A tip on how to educate and inform

Do you make sense?

A common trap which even experienced educators and presenters sometimes fall into is believing that one’s concepts are commonly known. Even if some abbreviations in the computer world such as FTP and TCP/IP are often used one cannot presuppose that everyone understands them. But even the meaning of comprehensible words like "integrative" or "operational support" are not always self-evident.

Presenters often know their subject through working daily with their speciality. In order to work effectively with their colleagues they develop a number of concepts to describe important aspects of their daily work. When the presenter gets up in front of a group and says "operational support" to an unknown audience, the presenter has a large number of inner pictures of what this means. The audience, however, may have none or only a few of these inner pictures. Therefore, lesser known concepts need to be described in pictures and with examples to put presenter and public on reasonably even ground. Otherwise the audience will soon loose interest because they can’t grasp what is being said. It simply does not make sense to them.

The challenge is knowing which concepts are in generally known and which are more specific to your field of work. Following relevant media we can ask ourselves: "Have I seen someone use this concept the way I use it?" If not, most likely your concept has to be explained.

If your audience are to have the same experience of your subject as yourself, they must have as many inspiring inner images of your concepts as you have.

• The best way to make sure your presentation make sense is to test it on someone in your target group and ask to note all seldom-known concepts. Then you take away the concepts you can avoid and explain the ones you need to keep.

One aspect of making sense to an audience is using concepts that are not only comprehensible but also interesting, inspiring and thought provoking.

Creative regards! Jonas Himmelstrand

© 2006 Strategies to Learn & Grow Newsletter • Printable version