Discussions and Brainstorming
Give your workshop audience a voice by stimulating discussions and brainstorming sessions. Everyone will learn from the multiple points of view.
Discussions and brainstorming are the easiest active training techniques to incorporate into all delivery modes. They can be part of the workshop design as an in-class discussion or small group brainstorming exercise, or as discussion board postings or conference call discussions in distance learning settings.
Allowing the audience to have a voice is a very powerful way to keep them engaged and thinking about what is being presented. Challenge them with a question that will stir the pot and allow for multiple opinions to be discussed. If you feel the topic may get a bit heated, make sure you state the ground rules (no interrupting, tolerance of other's viewpoints, and so on).
A good opening discussion is to ask the audience what they hope to learn on the topic or what their experience has been with the topic. A good closing discussion is to ask the audience what they found to be the key take-away messages.
Brainstorming can be stimulated by presenting a problem that they have to solve or a list they need to generate. If time permits, you can break the audience into groups and then have them report their findings to the larger group. If time is limited, lead the brainstorming with the larger group.
A challenge will be presented if your audience is primarily introverts. Introverts prefer time to process and think about their answers. Instead of putting them on the spot, leave them with a question to ponder and ask them to email their answers in at a later date and time.
The information gathered in brainstorming sessions and discussions can be very valuable! Multiple viewpoints are always better than one.
If you have comments or suggestions on this blog entry, please use the link on the side menu to start a discussion.
If you liked this blog entry, try the articles Keeping Workshops Practical or Focused Workshop Design
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