To speak is a gift.  To be a great orator is a gift.

To teach, is something else entirely.  I was at a training today. Three hours long.  They guy, as entertaining as he tried to be, read from a packet he had handed everyone.  The packet was 38 pages long.  Every word on the packet was read verbatim.  It was dull and excruciating.  I had read the entire packet in under half an hour and had to sit through his reading.

He did, to his credit, try to insert pleasant little stories along with what was in the packet, but some were personal stories that were way to close to his heart to be effective, and others were stories that did nothing to elaborate or add new material to the packet.

It reminded me of college, when a professor would hand out a note packet that went along with their PowerPoint slideshows.  But the fact that there was space for notes was redundant, everything they wanted to say and did say was already in the PowerPoint.  The note section was never touched and if you read the packet then there was no need to ask questions or even pay attention to the PowerPoint.

It wasn’t interesting, it wasn’t compelling, if you weren’t a student who learned best through reading or listening, there was no way you would retain anything from lesson.

When I taught we did use PowerPoint slideshows, but in collusion with video, lecture, readings, activities, and research projects.  Granted we had the benefit of teaching of a longer period of time, not a three hour period, however, if you plan to teach something in a three hour period, and you want people to pay attention, give them the resources in one form and ask for or plan activities that encourage participation.  At the end of the training, offer the information in other forms for review and reference.

Or at least that is how I would approach it.  Sitting for two and half hours, after absorbing all the information in the first half an hour, leads to boredom.  And doodling.