Connect-ed+Issue+46+January+2019

Secrets of public speaking ? a TED Talk
The audience sits patiently waiting, all eyes on the
stage; your heart races and a feeling of dread
suddenly hits. Public speaking is no easy task.
There is a common misconception that teachers ?
the confident educators who discuss and debate
with a class of 30 students for eight hours a day -
take public speaking in their stride. But this
couldn?t be further from the truth.
Chris Anderson, in the above TED talk, highlights
that your number one task as a speaker is to
transfer into your listener's mind an idea. When we
are sharing information on stage, our mind is
taking a few million of the multiple billion neurons
in our brain and synergising them to create a
pattern: the idea! According to Anderson, this same
exact pattern is being replicated in the heads of
our audience. When we are presenting to our
students, we are sharing with them an idea that we
are very comfortable with and this is much easier
to deliver. When we are talking to adults this can
go awry and those nerves take over and disrupt
our pattern.
So how does this help with you with public
speaking? Well, we must remember that we are
speaking for a reason. We are sharing with our
audience a piece of knowledge that could
potentially shape their future views of the world.
They are in the audience for a reason, to learn, and
you are being given the opportunity to shape the
way they think and behave. Anderson provides us
with some key guidelines for public speaking:
1.Focus on one major idea. Make sure you focus
on the single idea you are passionate about.
2.Give your listeners a reason to care! Stir your
audience?s curiosity. Reveal a disconnection in
someone?s world view and bridge that gap.
3.Build your idea. Use the power of language to
bring together concepts they already
understand.
Metaphors put things into context for those
with no prior knowledge on the subject.
4.Make your idea work sharing. Will this benefit
your audience? Use your idea as a gift to your
audience and enrich their minds.
For further help improving
your presentation skills,
check out our quick course,
Presenting with Power, on
NAU today.
David Docherty
Programme Officer
Education Team