I came across this idea on SpeakerNet News the other day. The suggestion was to put a question like, “I’d like to learn more about ______.” That seems like a pretty simple idea.
A good workbook can reinforce or expand on your lessons, workshops or lectures by reviewing and expanding on concepts you introduce in your aural presentation. It does this by asking each learner personally to respond to your questions. Lets explore this a bit.
Putting together a lecture tour is hard work. I only gave myself seven months lead time, a big mistake. You need time to build relationships with potential host genealogy groups. Its been claimed that the essence of marketing services like genealogy lectures and workshops is getting attention. Recently I learned about four main ways to get attention; clearly communicating your marketing message.
While researching “learning dyads” I found this interesting paper on approaches to on-line course design. Click here if you are curious enough to read an academic paper. What do you think?
Insert the words case study into your subject line and most online readers will snap to attention. White papers may get a yawn, but a case study promises real-life solutions and insider tips on how it all really works.
Many years ago when I was teaching English language at a university in Saudi Arabia I shared an office with a colleague from England who was working on a textbook for the Kenya Department of Education. One day he showed me one of the lesson assignments in the text. Students read a page of information and were instructed to transfer the data to a table. It was, he said, an excellant way look at students ability to comprehend what they read. So how does that relate to teaching genealogy?
As a genealogy librarian for over 20+ years, I faced almost daily the chaos of unprepared genealogists who neither knew what the wanted nor what they had! Many had no idea where they learned what they had! Out of this experience came a number of library sponsored programs on a variety of interconnected topcs. Let me tell you about some of these.
I suspect the key to making a living as a professional genealogist may require diversification for some of us. Speaking on genealogy topics is one way to diversify. But it takes more than being a skilled genealogist to market yourself as a speaker. Speakers need to promote themselves as experts in something. one such promotion tool is the media kit.
Clearly there is a need for genealogists to learn more about the processes of analyzing facts, and logically combining evidence. The experience we had today analyzing one case study is one way we can work together to develop analysis and logic skills. However, in order for it to be effective we need to have more experiences like this.
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Many the time a bouquet of Red Roses has won over an uncertain lady to new suitor. Ofen as speakers we encounter program planners who want our programs but want a reduced fee. I am learning the hard way that its better not to cut the fee, but to increase the value. Offer something extra.
In her comment on my original post, "Risk and Hope" M.Diane Rogers wrote,
"Speakers might offer societies a package of promotional materials which could be customized & copied for each event—with a brochure about the speaker, an 8 1/2 x 11 poster, an outline of the speaker’s biography & seminar titles/topics, written as samples for newspaper or e-mail notices, (preferably, I think, in Word or another common programme). Maybe even some family or other pictures could be offered for posters or promotion. (I use some interesting old postcards on my posters.) Also, speakers might want/need to make themselves available for local newspaper interviews by telephone". She continues,
"Along with these could be a checklist of ideas for publicity or promotion, a list of websites where events can be posted, for instance, and perhaps a requirement that there be at least some paid advertising would be part of the speaker’s contract with the society".
I was recently on the phone talking with the program co-ordinator of a wet coast genealogy society about plans for a fall tour in her part of the country. It was an interesting situation. She had heard about my forthcoming tour in March in British Columbia and was interested in arranging for me to continue the tour into her corner of the world. We exchanged emails, all morning and after lunch she phoned me and we sorted through a few ideas. It was a good experience for both of us and we decided to work towards a particular fall date. She was eager to explore ways for me to speak to other groups in that part of the country thus reducing travel costs. I like that in a program planner: determination to solve problems and challenges. It was a fortunate break. Not always do people call me first. I tend to get out and hustle to fill my calendar.
Teaching genealogy is often a labor of love. An excited genealogy buff emerges in a community and creates from the whole cloth what she or he thinks out to fit in a curriculum. A few inquitive people seek out what has already been written on the topic of genealogy education. These people would benefit from a closer look at some of the following titles:
Sitting at my desk ruminating on a talk I had heard by Elizabeth Shown Mills entitled “Maximizing Our Use of Indexes”, I found myself staring at the handout when I was struck by an interesting fact, her headings gave a rather interesting formula to construct a lecture on a large number of topics. Looking for patterns and using patterns in new ways is an interesting way to expand your repertoire of teaching and organizational strategies.
The Genealogist in Residence idea can also be used as a promotion tool by a speaker. Consider this scenario
While looking for something else on the web I stumbled on an interesting site regarding the use of short case studies or case histories for promotional use. I began to wonder if the tips on writing them could help us fine tune our case studies for classroom and workshop use. Take a look at this item from Wordbiz Report and see if you can use the tips in this and linked articles to write a simple, short case study based on one of your own research bluders, challeges or problems. Leave the solution open, posing some sort of open-ended questions. Remember, short case studies bear a resemblance to those word problems we got in arithmatic class in 5th grade.
When each of our students’ ancestors seems as different as one leaf is from the next, we often need to devise learning activities all can do that give practical experience. Error recognition exercises are good examples of controlled practical experience. We all make mistakes, but if we know what we are doing ( i.e. if we are competent) , we recognize those errors. So we can pre-test for competence by asking people to look at flawed examples and offer corrections.
Have you ever wondered about your great-grandparents?
Or have you wanted to work on your family history, but you had no idea how to get started? If you answered yes to these questions, this FREE interactive tutorial is for you.
There is something really exciting about teaching genealogy. Who knows but one of your students could be the future Helen Leary,Thomas Jones, Elizabeth Shown Mills, Brenda Dougall Merriman or Paula Stuart Warren: outstanding genealogists of today. We do not know when we enter the class room what our impact will be on the leading edge of genealogy and family history So we need to beprepared.