The word "lecture" comes from the Latin lectus, which is the past participle of legere "to read" which is what some people do when they simply read aloud the words crammed onto their Powerpoint slides or the text of their lecture notes.
At first glance, the lecture seems to give a speaker considerable control over the audience. People sit quietly/respectfully in their seats. They listen. Some make notes. Others ask questions at the appointed time. Most remain in their seats until the lecture is over. Then they leave.
But the reality can be quite different. Unless the audience is so entertained by the topic or so enthralled by the speaker their minds may be somewhere else. Thinking about sex, shopping, what to buy for dinner or the hot guy in the first row. Some snooze. One or two snore.
My friend Professor Emeritus Sean O'Connor conducts a workshop to demonstrate the difference between the lecture and the workshop. He shows how workshops allow the facilitator to exert remote control over the learning experience.
He divides the session into two half hour activities. The participants are invited to use a sequence of questions to guide their discussion about a poem, such as Samuel Coleridge Taylor's poem..."In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, a stately pleasure dome decree...." Then he asks the participants to critique their discussion.
Most groups report that the process was very democratic, everyone had a say, they were very creative and it was fun. They also conclude the process gave them control over their own learning.
Sean begs to differ about the issue of "control".
He begins by asking "who gave you the task?
"You did," they tentatively reply
"Who gave you the process to explore the topic?"
"You did." they say.
"Who performed the task as requested?"
"We did." they chorus.
"So who was in control?"
"......You were." they reluctantly acknowledge.
You too can regain control over the learning process by combining the "information" elements of the lecture and the "interactive" elements of the workshop...even if the audience is seated in rows like a lecture hall or classroom.
In doing so you can become a challenging Interactor - an inspirer, provocateur, orchestrator and facilitator of knowledge creation - who asserts power and influence by helping people engage with each other in new and interesting ways. They will never forget you, the experience or what they learned during the process.
Here's a workshop to help you achieve the best of both worlds:
1. Briefly describe a topic and the main points you would like to communicate to an audience about a theory, method, concept, idea or issue.
2. Choose a topic other than your own (from question 1), and brainstorm an open-ended discussible question that you could ask the audience to discuss in pairs for 2-3 minutes.
3. Choose a different topic (from question 1) other than your own, and brainstorm an activity, experiment, exercise, you could ask two people to perform in pairs (and the results shared with another pair in front or behind them). e.g. draw something, act something out, observe a set of actions.
4. Design an interesting way that a large number of ideas could be collected from an audience and recorded and displayed for all to see.
5. Thinking about all the Multiple Intelligences, brainstorm an idea for an audience participation activity that could tap into two or more of the different learning types. Bodily-kinesthetic. Interpersonal. Verbal-linguistic. Logical-mathematical. Naturalistic. Intrapersonal. Visual-spatial. Musical.
6. Describe a method you could use to get an audience to find the patterns in some data collection activity e.g. the colour of people's eyes, favourite pastime, most dangerous experience.
7. Describe an amazing activity you could design which gets the whole of your audience on its' feet at the end of your "interactive lecture" that resonates with your big idea. e.g. a Gregorian chant of slogans for next year.
8. Imagine yourself as an Interactor. Describe how you might deliver a 30-minute "interactive lecture" in which you have three activities interspersed through the process that engage your audience interactively, perhaps with a resounding finale.
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