In my PIDP 3250 Class forum Ann posted a really interesting comment on facilitating in the classroom. I had to share it on my blog because it resonates with me. I am going to try the elevator pitch for sure.
Facilitating is my go to in the classroom.
I generally believe that the learner has to take their prior learning to create the new learning.
If you don’t have time to have students do a full project over the course of weeks etc… you can do other short ways of accomplishing something similar. For example I have to get everyone to a basic level of understanding of a bunch of facts (background on the organization, different technology platforms, names of events, documents etc…). I take all the different topics and I hand them out to groups of 3 people. I ask them to look in their binders/online on their phones etc… to create a short and sweet explanation of what it is, and when they would use it/need to know it. I get them to develop a sales or elevator pitch to present it back to everyone. The process usually inlcludes 15 mins of working with a small group so they also get to know a couple of people in the class they don’t already.
This session gets great feedback and it doesn’t matter whether someone is an expert or novice.
marialoehrich 