Giving talks
On Facebook I shared a few photos of some of the talks I gave both at UC Davis, at other universities and at various conferences, but I didn't think that was the place to share my perceptions of the experience. So here go some observations.
There is a mix of levels of formality and informality that contrasts to what I have experienced in other places. On the one hand, there is formality in the punctuality when people come together for these events and how they come to be silent without been told to do so. Introductions have a level of formality but are not stuffy and detached.
The style of interaction also presents quite a few differences. People are much more cautious when taking turns or asking questions, there is practically no overlap of voice and there is widespread use of hedging and clarification to ensure there is no offense.
Students are politely interested in what I tell them, although I can't be sure that they can fully understand the content of the presentations: too many degrees of separation: very different contexts described, lack of familiarity with accent (whether I present in English or in Spanish), my usual issues of speaking at high speed, possibly made worse by my attempt to include a lot of material.
To try an compensate for this, I produced presentations using images (this is always my preference) but including links to further reading or viewing material so that, if the case may be, students or faculty can delve deeper into something they may find particularly interesting.
One slide I added to presentations for students covers some of the information concerning English Language Assistant programmes because many students asked me about what opportunities that might be to go to work in Argentina.
As in every class, you can identify the odd few (5-10%) who are really keen and follow what you are saying really keenly
In one graduate seminar, I felt particularly weird. as the professor set some of my papers as class reading to the students. She also asked one of the students to prepare questions about it. This is the methodology she uses for all her classes (I have attended a few of them because the topic interests me) When it came to the day of the meeting, I had my powerpoint presentation ready, but was amazed to see several things:
There is a mix of levels of formality and informality that contrasts to what I have experienced in other places. On the one hand, there is formality in the punctuality when people come together for these events and how they come to be silent without been told to do so. Introductions have a level of formality but are not stuffy and detached.
The style of interaction also presents quite a few differences. People are much more cautious when taking turns or asking questions, there is practically no overlap of voice and there is widespread use of hedging and clarification to ensure there is no offense.
Students are politely interested in what I tell them, although I can't be sure that they can fully understand the content of the presentations: too many degrees of separation: very different contexts described, lack of familiarity with accent (whether I present in English or in Spanish), my usual issues of speaking at high speed, possibly made worse by my attempt to include a lot of material.
To try an compensate for this, I produced presentations using images (this is always my preference) but including links to further reading or viewing material so that, if the case may be, students or faculty can delve deeper into something they may find particularly interesting.
One slide I added to presentations for students covers some of the information concerning English Language Assistant programmes because many students asked me about what opportunities that might be to go to work in Argentina.
As in every class, you can identify the odd few (5-10%) who are really keen and follow what you are saying really keenly
In one graduate seminar, I felt particularly weird. as the professor set some of my papers as class reading to the students. She also asked one of the students to prepare questions about it. This is the methodology she uses for all her classes (I have attended a few of them because the topic interests me) When it came to the day of the meeting, I had my powerpoint presentation ready, but was amazed to see several things:
- The students had actually read my papers (I could see their open laptops with my pdf file and their annotations)
- The student in charge of writing the questions and the professor have produced a handout with topics and selected quotes for discussion. The concepts have been written on the whiteboard under the screen I pull down to project the slides. It is a weird sensation, almost like looking at a mirror and seeing your image but through somebody else's eyes.
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