Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!labrea!agate!ucbvax!husc6!ukma!ukecc!wes
From: wes@engr.uky.edu (Wes Morgan)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Re: Ph.D.'s and Teaching
Message-ID: <2031@ukecc.engr.uky.edu>
Date: 17 Feb 88 14:25:23 GMT
References: <2144@uvacs.CS.VIRGINIA.EDU> <115@mccc.UUCP> <3469@umn-cs.cs.umn.edu> <834@cos.COM>
Organization: Ennui Rampant @ UKentucky/Lexington
Lines: 46

In article <834@cos.COM>, howard@COS.COM (Howard C. Berkowitz) writes:
> 
> In an industrial context (I don't have sufficiently recent academic
> experience to judge), if I give out advance handouts, the audience tends
> to follow the paper copy, not the presentation.  Many conference and
> seminar organizers demand the handouts "so the attendees may take notes
> on them."  How real is this need?  I'll happily provide notebook paper
> if they need it! :-)
> 

I've had the opposite problem at many presentations; the blasted handouts
are so *extremely* detailed that I wind up underlining that small portion
which I find interesting. This naturally takes a rather large amount of time,
which could be better spent observing salient points in the lecture itself.
Of course, I'm sure that there are those who would take the speaker's actual
notes if they could get them. 8^>

> [description of humourous intro using slides deleted] 
> Should I give out this first slide in the advance text, as some demented
> organizers have requested?
> 

While I realize that the organizers wish to present as complete a package
of material as possible, I think that the presentors should be given a cer-
tain amount of leeway.  It's gotten to the point where one really doesn't
have to attend at all; all one has to do is xerox the advance text, from
whatever source.

> A lesser problem of handouts is that they may not be meaningful, or may
> actively be misleading, outside the context of the presentation.  I
> structure my visuals as adjuncts to presentations, not as pseudo-publications.

This also creates a problem later, months after the presentation.  Poor visuals
and/or handouts can leave the reader with a huge amount of data, but no memory
of the greater concept.  This problem is best solved by the presentor's dis-
cretion in designing visuals/handouts.


> -- 
> -- howard(Howard C. Berkowitz) @cos.com


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