Quotables: Avoiding Blah, Blah, Blah Presentations

"The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible."

- George Burns

This extremely important principle absolutely applies to something else in my life - medicines. Unfortunately, the idea is lost on most Professors who enjoy the sound of their voice and seem to become blind to the bobbing heads with closed eyes in the audience in front of them.

Are you giving a lecture or presentation soon? Here are my Top 5 Things I wish every presenter would do when presenting a lecture:

1. Stop Using PowerPoint: I view PowerPoint as the death of a good educational presentation. It is amazing to show pictures with or do some cool demos for everyone to see. But, too many professors now use PowerPoint to speed through as much information as possible, thinking that as long as they say something, it is the same as teaching it. This is not true.
   
2. Don't just read your presentation: This ties to point 1 - many professors just read through what they have written on PowerPoint. This is NOT effective! Plus it is incredibly boring and infuriating to sit through.
   
3. Monotone is unacceptable: Please, for the love of God do not go through an entire lecture without varying your voice.
   
4. Assess Understanding: This is NOT done by quickly asking "do you understand" then moving on to your next point. Assessing properly requires Socratic questioning, giving students time to process your points with their neighbors, and opportunities to practice.
   
5. Keep...It...SHORT: Non-stop talking for a long time guarantees that the listener will remember a progressively smaller percentage of what you are saying. Pick about three main points and drive that point home. Want an example of how to do this effectively? Watch a Joel Osteen sermon.

Finally, I suppose it doesn't hurt to have an interesting topic. Last time I checked, everything about medicine is pretty darn interesting, so please, don't kill it with a poor presentation.