[lpi-discuss] OverHead Presentation Slides

[Alan McKinnon]

On Wednesday 29 July 2009 17:26:20 Anselm Lingnau wrote:
> Jocelyn wrote:
> > Just asking if there is instructors on the list and asking how they
> > delivering courses on what Presentation slides ?
>
> As leading courseware providers we are frequently asked whether there are
> presentation slides to go with our manuals. (In fact the decision whether
> to purchase our manuals sometimes seems to hinge on the availability of
> slides rather than other criteria which to the naive observer might seem
> more important, like the arrangement of the content, the quality of the
> writing, or the presence and quality of exercises. It's a strange world.)

Personally, I never used slides and would always switch the projector off. I 
also made students keep the courseware book closed.

I found that with slides, the students would concentrate on the slide, or read 
the book and not listen to the instructor. They paid a fortnight's wages to 
have data move from my head to theirs, not to read books.

My instructions style is that I talk to a bunch of actual people in front of 
me. I observe them, figure out where they are at and communicate at that 
level. I encourage interaction from the student, they can ask any sensible 
question at any time, and I never found a set of slides that properly suited 
any course. How could they? - no two courses are the same, people are 
involved.

My somewhat limited observation of other instructors is that those who insist 
on having slides are to some degree replacing themselves with a slide instead 
of just standing there and talking to a person.

But that's me and that's my style. Having said that, not all slide collections 
are bad. The RHCE ones are pretty good, I found they summarised the material 
nicely. But I always used them after discussing a topic, never before and 
certainly never during.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com