Lecturer Training

It was announced this week that special training would be provided for lecturers over the summer. The training will cover a number of areas including, organising a course, presenting the concepts clearly and, most important, training in the use of lecture equipment.

It is a constant source of embarrassment for lecturers when they are unable to operate lecture equipment, most frequently the over head projector (OHP). Few students have not been provided with 5 minutes light entertainment watching a lecturer futilely try to operate the OHP. Many students spend hours over the course of a year watching a lecturer fumbling around at the front trying to find the on switch. Then trying to find a socket to plug it in. Then trying to get the wall switch and the switch on the projector turned on simultaneously. Then once the thing is switch on we can collect much enjoyment from the expression on vis face when the machine fails to produce a bright spot of light on the screen. After some prompting ve will point the mirror towards the floor then the ceiling and eventually in the direction of a randomly chosen wall, or, more often, the audiences eyes.

At this point plenty of opportunity to fudge the simple task of rotating the machine towards the wall is presented; Usually by pulling the plug from the wall, knocking the OHP over or spilling a pile of carefully ordered acetates over the floor. This puts vim on the home straight, an acetate is picked up from the floor at random and placed on the projector; at this point two situations are possible:

A)The image will be in focus and slightly smaller than the original acetate, in which case the lecturer should consider this a job well done and continue with the lecture.

B)The image will be of a decent size, but completely out of focus; most people will at this point grip the focussing wheel on the side of the unit and twist until the image is in focus, but lecturers will be taught a much better way. They will be shown how to simply move the unit towards or away from the wall until the image is almost readable then proceed with the lecture.

If you are lucky enough to have a semi-readable image you will be able to see a new psychological teaching technique in action.... the text is upside down and back to front, thus accelerating your mental processes and enabling you to understand the lecture more easily.

[Copyright Ross Newell 1998]