TLUG meeting suggestions/comments

[Paul Mora]

On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 09:47, Chris Aitken wrote:
> Madison Kelly wrote:

> >    I don't know if "heckling" is the right word, but if not there was an
> > apparent need by some to interrupt in order to say something that really
> > wasn't within the scope of the topic being presented. Obviously if a
> > speaker makes a notable mistake, like I did with the with the MAC
> > address matching, then by all means point out the mistake. On the other
> > hand, repeatedly nit-picking details only serves to present the person
> > making the comments as desperate to prove something and make the speaker
> > feel frustrated and flustered.
> 
> When I teach/present, I nip problems like that in the bud with something
> like, "If I make
> little mistakes please let me know during the break. Unless I make huge
> mistake
> please let me proceed with my presentation. I don't know everything, but
> I do know what I
> want to present - and I don't want that interrupted. Thank you."

Right on!  I do the same thing when I teach my Linux courses.  The Linux
"world" changes so often and so fast that it is very difficult to keep
up.  I also add that if I don't know the answer to a question, I'll find
the answer out for the individual, or point them to someone who knows. 
I just write those things down, and research them later.

> If someone is persistently rude, "You are interrupting the presentation. If
> you and the
> audience would prefer that you give the presentation, be my guest.
> Otherwise please let
> me proceed."

Also good advice.  If you let it go unchallenged, you'll get madder and
begin to concentrate less on your presentation and more on the
individual.

Not too long ago, I was doing a lecture on the X Window system.  As I
was about to demonstrate the features of the GDM display manager, one of
the students ssh'd into my test machine and hosed it so that the demo
would fail.  I confronted him point-blank in front of everyone in the
class, and let him know that he just ruined the demo for all of us.  He
never bothered me for the rest of the class, and was extremely
apologetic. :-)

pm

-- 
Paul Mora <paulmora-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>

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