Liven up the talking head

 

           Personalising lectures delivered through videoconferencing tools

Our masked lives made us realise how our faces were not very important to our identities. Initial days of my masked life, I went around saying, “Hi, I’m Kshema” assuming no one could recognise me behind my mask. I soon realised this wasn’t necessary; I could recognise everyone – masked, gloved, shielded and sometimes even PPEd. This set me thinking about eye contact.  
Real-time eye contact between two people generates shared attention and prepares both brains for social interaction… (Koike et al., 2019 in eNeuro). Source.  
But how do we motivate our students to pay attention when our eye contact is mediated through the camera?
Remember these were students who used to doodle, draw cartoons of the teacher, whisper, pass notes, whoosh paper planes, check phones surreptitiously, share gossip, laugh when the teacher turned to write, day dream, stare at an enemy, gaze at a girlfriend…
And we were teachers who could see them do all these, detect interest, sense boredom, ask questions, wake up someone who was dozing, ask them to walk around a bit, crack a joke, walk around the class, sometimes teach from the back of the classroom, wave at a colleague passing by outside the classroom, etc.
Now, we are reduced to talking heads…and our students sitting ducks.  😅

  An example for a talking head shot. Source. 

A talking head is the head and shoulders shot of a person talking; a news presenter or television reporter who talks to the camera and is viewed in close-up. Mostly used in a not very complimentary manner, a ‘talking head’ means speaking without genuine emotion.
                                

There’s enough written about how to be a good talking head. For instance, take a look at "How to Look Entirely Emotionless"

           This wiki article explains how to stop your eyes and mouth from showing emotions.

I’m going to do the opposite. I’m gong to tell you stuff we can do to enliven the talking head. How do we connect without eye contact? How do we deliver personalised lectures via live conferencing tools?  
And I’m going to practice what I preached in my previous posts, the rest of the article is going to be a 3-minute read.

1. Learn to modulate your voice. Lectures get boring if you drone on using the same pitch and volume throughout. So, practice flexibility, adjust your voice to capture all topics, instructions, feelings, anything.   
Go on, learn from the King.  View the video here.

                                                 A singing lion. King of the raagas 😁
Here’s a more recent inspiration from our own kind - Sai Swetha, a Class 1 teacher on Kerala Victer's channel. Please view the video. It was a huge learning experience for me. 

But whatever species your guide, inspiration or mentor belongs to, the point is learn to use your voice to capture emotions - low, rise, low-rise, high…try the entire gamut to capture all emotions. Practice enthusiasm with voice. Practice energy with your voice. Deliver awesome lectures
2. The second technique is to use drama. I understood its significance when I read about several schools across the world hiring theatre artists and drama coaches to train their teachers. Teachers were all praises because ultimately all teaching is storytelling. So, take a cue. 

                                    Adam Levine in The Voice. Source.
The recent trend of 2020 mood calendar started by Reese Witherspoon is another inspiration to practice dramatic faces. 
We may not be so theatrical, but that’s a start.  Smile, scowl, frown, laugh as if all your students are there. 
3. The third is the camera angle. Take a quick look at your background before you turn the camera on. Many times I noticed that a crooked lampshade or Pretzel (the dog) or Ramakanth (the husband) in the background generates more excitement or discussion than me the teacher. Keep altering your camera angle. Keep altering the talking head shot.

                        Take a cue from another master. Source: A WhatsApp forward. 

 4. The last technique is the use of dialogues. If you want to read out from your notes while lecturing, do so. But don’t make it sound like you’re reading from an essay, make it sound like you’re reading out from a story. Sound like you’re talking to your students.
The teacher whose video I shared above was trending for a long time. Every time I played this video to an audience, they said she sounds like she’s taking a one-on-one class - as if she’s talking to just that child.   
Visualise your students sitting in front of you. Be able to see the world in that tiny grain of camera lens on your computer.   
Students who receive personalised instruction outperform those who do not. Livening up the talking head is one huge step towards personalisation. 

Modifying the text of your lecture to achieve personalisation is discussed in a previous post. 

Go on, be drama champs. 🙌