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L i v e A n i m at i o n L e c t u r e
When sales representatives go in front of an audience that they’re trying to sell to, there is no such thing as cheating. People’s attention spans are short and the more assets and tools they have to keep the attention on them, the better. Over the years, the practice has become refined. With some audiences, being too flashy or too loud can work against them, and in others there’s no such thing as overboard. They cater their pitch to the specific audience, because they know what will keep their attention, but even more importantly, what will allow them to connect with it viscerally, crave it practically, and align with it as a reflection of themselves. It’s not always so shallow, the art of persuasion, and it’s not always so manipulative. Teachers have a similar challenge. Their audience has a short attention span too, and they possess their own particularly taste. Teachers who refuse to cater to the preferences of their students risk losing their attention, and teachers who try too hard lose out as well. It’s really an art form to be able to know an audience so well as to design a lesson that fits their taste in just the right ways. But how is a teacher supposed to compete when students are so used to being compelled by incredible graphics, fast action, and everything on demand? Some companies, like BoomGen Studios, have made it their mission to create educational content at a quality that is cinematically comparable to pop-culture. While this serves everyone as a valuable resource on those subjects, most teachers, couldn’t make that kind of content if they wanted to, so they go back to the blackboard. I actually love the blackboard or white-board. It’s always such a shame when teachers only use it for text. It’s a huge canvas, and when it’s used well, it can be as engaging as any blockbuster film, if for no other reason than that it’s live. I’m used to drawing on the board while I teach, but usually I’ll spend a few minutes before class doing at least one or two
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