12 Brain Rules & Making Presentations

This post from Presentation Zen brings together several personal interests of mine: psychology and the brain, teaching, learning, and presenting. First, it brings in information from brain rules by John Medina. This book explores the idea of what would happen if you take brain science and redesign the classroom. Part of the redesign is about how we communicate information to our students. Of course, we lecture to students and we use powerpoint presentations but how effective are our presentations? Medina incudes a nice slide show that emphasizes one of his brain rules regarding the impact of visuals over text. The video at the end of this post addresses the myth of multitasking. Sometimes, we give in to the notion that multitasking is a productive skill and that multitasking is something that younger students can do and older adults cannot. I teach my students every year about selective attention and it's relationship to sensory processing and memory so I understand the myth of multitasking. I understand personally when I see my production decline because of all the distractions of the internet and I see it in my students when they are distracted in the classroom. So, follow some brain rules, throw away your old powerpoint presentations and get the full, undivided attention of your students. And while you are it, turn off your computer and really focus on the task in front of you. After you read and comment on my blog, of course!