Sunday, November 20, 2011

Session 9

Having a career path in technology, I make it a point to attend as many professional development workshops as possible (especially when they pertain to software). I recently attended a professional development workshop that was very informative and well presented. I think that the key to the effectiveness of the workshop was that it wasn’t scripted in a way that the presenter followed a set linear format. The presenter was constantly interacting with the audience and redirecting the focus of the instruction to address the needs of the audience. The workshop was hands on so that the attendees could follow the steps as they went along and ask questions at any time. The presenter also gave the attendees options on what they would like to learn so we were able to choose areas that we felt would be most applicable to our positions.

I have also attended a professional development workshop where after it was over I felt that I would probably have been better off had not attended it at all. Like the afore mentioned positive professional development workshop, it was essentially hands on and the presenters encouraged the participants to ask questions whenever possible, but the end result was that everyone seemed to be so confused that they were hesitant to ask any questions at all. The main problem was that the presenters were attempting to explain subject matter that they dealt with on a daily basis, but was for the most part foreign to everyone else. In other words, they weren’t looking at it from the perspective of someone who was learning the information for the first time. Unlike the presenter in the afore mentioned workshop, these presenters stuck to a script and continually attempted to force the information onto their audience in hopes that we would be able to understand it as it was presented. The attendees would have actually benefitted from the workshop if the presenters had adapted their instruction based on the assessed prior knowledge of their audience. To the presenters’ credit, there was a much larger audience then in the first workshop mentioned in this post. The end result was that I was more confused on the topic being covered than I was prior to coming in.

4 comments:

  1. It is definitely more fun when there are interactions between the conductor and the audience. Being flexible and adding new ideas during a training is a great way to help people solve their problems...Nice post..

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  2. I've been a part of a workshop or two like the second one you mentioned. Usually the issue is the size of the workshop because it is so hard to tailor it to such a variety of levels of understanding and found myself looking around if I was the only one lost. Nice post

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  3. I hate it when I go to a training that leaves me less informed than before. Almost as bad is a training that I know I could have conducted better myself!

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  4. I agree with everyone above! I can't stand going to a training and coming out feeling like I wasted my time! I have been to a workshop like the 2nd one you mentioned. The presenters just kept relating the technology to their line of work and not worrying about others.

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