The Advanced Practice in Word workshop I put together some years ago as a 10-12 hour hands-on workshop for 6-12 folks has found a new niche this past week. Four cohorts of first and second-year grad students in a distance program with CIIS come together for several days at a hotel out in Pacifica. Librarians (this year Lise and Eahr) come out for a long weekend in the middle of it, and with Lise’s ankle surgery this summer, it was arranged that I come along to assist her with mobility issues (and drive the getaway car for the three of us); I offered to teach a nutshell version of the AP Word class with expanded handouts, which was happily accepted. I was given to expect about 28 folks, the evening before, and accordingly made 33 copies of the handouts, and was about 3 short for the session, and emailed to everyone who expressed an interest, and also spent the rest of the day doig one-on-one followup tutorials (that o so useful hands-on part).
Wait, you cry; I squoze an 11 hour hands-on experiential workshop into a babble & interpretive dance Reduced Shakespeare sort of thing, and it worked? Well. Yes, apparently. I’m still convinced these folks have been handed the equivalent of “there are Useful Tools for you, they take less time to learn than to kludge thorugh a TOC for a 300 page paper manually, here’s your Handout!”
It was even fun, and I had good feedback on the teaching style, and the next day on things people were remembering. I think the interpretive dance while talking may and might help the kinetic learners a little itty bit – ? and the handouts get to the visual learners, and the talking to the Auditory learners – but the real test will be in how well they dig in and start to mess about with the tools. That’s the sacred part.