The power of vulnerability – Brené Brown, academics, and me
I was reminded, while teaching a presentations course to social science PhDs today, of the vulnerability of academics as they conduct scientific inquiry. The whole nature of science is not knowing, but wanting to find out more. Complexity generates new and interesting questions. So vulnerability is a key ingredient in academic presentation. We looked at […]
Michael Pawlyn: Using nature’s genius in architecture
I’ll be teaching city planners, and so have decided to use this wonderful presentation (TED Salon 2010) by the designer of the Eden Project bubble dome, the biomimicry specialist Michael Pawlyn. The presentation is deeply architectural in nature. I’ll be asking: Watch the first minutes (0:17-1:50) and answer: What examples does he begin with? What […]
A natural presenter: Chris Glass, graphic designer
I’m taking a good course in Public Speaking on Coursera, recommended by Edward Tanguay (thank you!). Looking for presentations to comment on for this course, and for examples to show in a presentation seminar I’m giving on Friday, I’ve been watching countless ones and stumbled across Chris Glass, graphic designer. I really like the naturalness […]
Joni Mitchell CBC interview
Joni Mitchell gave an interview to Jian Ghomeshi. “If you listen to that music and you see me, you’re not getting anything out of it. If you listen to the music and see yourself in it… the communication is complete.” Still, it’s lovely to be able to meet the artist behind the music and to […]
Julian Treasure: 5 ways to listen better
Sound expert Julian Treasure says, “We are losing our listening… We don’t want oratory anymore, we now want sound bites. And the art of conversation is being replaced – dangerously, I think – by personal broadcasting”. Here he suggests five ways to re-tune our ears, and adjust the way we listen. silence – don’t distance […]
Eva / Louis: What a wonderful world
My favorite rendition of this classic of 1967/68 is Eva Cassidy’s last performance at the Bayou. Did you know the message was political? I was thinking of her music this past weekend, when we had the second half of our intercultural train the trainer course with Judith Mader and Rudi Camerer of ELC, and I […]
Google Translate
I use Google Translate in my work, and like to introduce it to advanced English students who need to do translation at work. But you need to study very closely what this great tool does and doesn’t do. Based on the World Wide Web, Google Translate is really quite helpful for suggesting collocations (word partnerships) […]