All of us in the nonprofit technology family are educators. Whether you are teaching users about database functionality, educating vendors or consultants about your organizational needs, educating programmers about user needs or simply explaining what the latest shiny tech object does, you are an educator. That is one of the many reasons I am excited about being NTEN’s Educational Program Manager. My hope is to support our community in “amping up the awesome” when it comes to this aspect of our work.
We transfer knowledge in many ways - everything from formal presentations to one-on-one coaching to casual conversations. How can we improve the ways we communicate and present information so that they are effective and result in useful learning? The answers are many, but some of the basics include being a good student, knowing your audience, presenting information well, and evaluating results.
Good teachers are usually good students. To me this means being interested in new information, seeking out good instructors, and being aware of how we learn. Our level of interest in a topic translates to our audience. If a teacher is not interested and excited about a topic, chances are slim that they will elicit interest and excitement in students. We learn about different teaching techniques by seeing other teachers in action. Seeking out and learning from good instructors provides us, as educators, with tactics and strategies that improve our knowledge transfer skills. By being aware of the different ways we ourselves learn (experiential, visual, through stories/ examples, etc.), we gain insight into how others learn and can use that to improve how we teach.
Knowing what is important to your audience is a key component to helping them learn. If a program manager is interested in improving service to clients, talking to them about how a process or technology will help improve service is much more effective than talking to them about data tables and application programming interfaces (API’s). People are more attentive to - and interested in - topics that impact them or help them solve challenges. Thinking about what is important to your audience helps you tailor your delivery and content to their needs.
Who hasn’t sat through a presentation with dozens of text-packed slides that is mind numbing and far from engaging? Presenting information well runs the gamut from speaking style to creating visually dynamic presentations to facilitating discussions that engage students. Speaking in clear language with a minimum of acronyms and tech terms, creating materials that balance images and text, being able to ask questions that lead to thoughtful discussions - all these help improve the audience’s learning experience.
How do you know if your audience has achieved the learning objectives that you set or they desire? Evaluation. Asking for and reviewing feedback on your presentation style, your materials, and your discussion facilitation skills all help you improve as an educator. Measuring your student’s ability to process, absorb, think critically about, and use the information you convey is the way to truly measure the impact you have.
In the coming months I look forward to engaging in discussions around these areas and more to help us all raise the bar of awesomeness as educators. I’m also beginning work on a series of webinars on these topics, so look for more on that later this year.
I hope you’ll join us for some of NTEN’s excellent learning opportunities including the Nonprofit Technology Conference, webinars, and other events. If you have any ideas or questions, please post a comment here or contact us through your preferred method.