Telling the (innovative) story with an overhead projector
February 19, 2018 - Landscape of Education / Mistakes in Education
To set my storyline right, I tried drawing while talking to others about my research. I am not that amazing painter that amazes people with my sketches, but I discovered it worked very well. My drawing is like ‘on the back of a napkin’ as described by Dan Roam. And he was right:
“There is no more powerful way to prove that we know something well than to draw a simple picture of it. And there is no more powerful way to see hidden solutions than to pick up a pen and draw it out the pieces of our problem” – Dan Roam
I practiced my story with several participants to get it right and simple. Leaving the details delivered a clean story in which outsiders are free to contribute. I practiced on paper, and that worked very well. To present it to others I tried this on a flip-chart and a tablet. The flip-chart made it difficult to follow because I was in front of the drawing all the time or the drawing was to big (and therefore becoming complex, because I kept adding details). Drawing on a tablet made my drawing not specific enough and didn’t satisfy the perfectionist in me. So I was in search of another tool. And I (re)discovered a very old machine: the overhead projector.
In 10 minutes I was able to made my story clear by drawing on this projector. I printed a few sheets what helped me with the outlines (ouch, that made it clear that this technique is old.. try to get the tools and help.. hard).
Image 1 My partner in crime: the overhead projector
I realize it is difficult to share this presentation online. Maybe I try to make a video of this presentation later if this proves to be a good introduction to outsiders.
To give a glimp of my presentation of my used (and further developed) research methods to answer my specific questions I share a photo of the sheets after the presentation.
Image 2 Sheets after the presentation
Image 3 Cheatsheet