FORTUNE+ VIDEO SPONSORED CONTENTS ADVERTORIALS FORTUNE AUDIO Fortune Careers New TRADE AFRICA New

Fortune Logo

As I was contemplating about making a New Year’s resolution, the word “new” brought some déjà vu from the past, my college days. Back then, suggested readings for the courses we took was rare. There was no shortage of readers for what, in most cases, were older editions, no matter how poor our reading culture. The problem was that there were way too few books and too many graduates, as few as we were at the time.

Then a fresh idea came up to prepare and distribute handouts from some of the academic staff. Just the argument on the necessity of this was enough to divide the staff. For us, this definitely helped, as we could take time grasping the subject matters we were studying, going through them over and over again.


Still, there was always the kerfuffle to take the front seat, to be as close to the instructor as possible in the big halls where the lectures took place. A non-interactive session starts and finishes in lightning speed as we struggle to jot down everything, never a word to drip out from what the instructor says.

Next, I thought about an item that decades ago was an exciting new addition to the preparation and delivery of presentations – the PowerPoint. It partly did away with the chalkboard but was not as easy as we would like to imagine it now. This was because there were no drives for storing the smallest kilobyte of data. They had to be loaded onto floppy disks, a process that itself took no small amount of time.



Once in those days, a higher-level strategic management training was staged at a government agency. During the presentation, the participants continuously moved along with each slide with great enthusiasm. Then the participants, drawn from the strategic apexes of several public enterprises, lost pace all of a sudden. The presenter was completely absorbed by his slides; he did not notice what went on among them.

The participants of the room had been too absorbed with the red laser pointer hovering on the screen, wondering why it was anywhere the facilitator wished to point within a fraction of a second. The trainees were fumbling their way along this clueless labyrinth of suppositions about what it may be, its source and what swung the laser to point. That continued until the clock struck for a break.


One can assume that today being in school and in the classroom, mainly in the higher academic institutions, is completely different from our days. If they struggle with books, students will probably be getting papers and handouts in addition to digital copies of books and other resources. They can even go to YouTube for a lecture on the course with far greater depth.

Surprisingly, this phenomenon is not appreciated. Recently, I asked a young man who graduated a decade ago as an IT professional. He told me about his stay in college. He said it all went well, yet it was not until he and his friends were only left with two semesters they learned its importance. This was when a young lecturer joined their college.

Apparently, he had mastered the art of presentations and lectures, grabbing his students’ ever-shrinking attention span. His lectures were not overbearing but clear and concise with the speed and impact of the laser pointer. He also had a laser pointer, as does the IT professional who uses one for his presentations. He had passed it to me, and my New Year’s resolution is to pass it to others and for a Happy New Year.


PUBLISHED ON Sep 10,2021 [ VOL 22 , NO 1115]



Tadesse Tsegaye (seetadnow@gmail.com), a polyglot with experience in multicultural-cum-institutional settings in resources management.




How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 0 / 5. Vote count: 0

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.



Related Posts

Editors' Pick

Exclusive Interviews

State Enterprises from Oracles to Apprentices

Dec 22 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW

Charged with transforming colossal state-owned enterprises into modern and competitiv...

Agenda

Rising Costs, Inflation Threaten Insurance Industry

Aug 18 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO

Although predictable Yonas Zerihun's job in the ride-hailing service is not immune to...

Agenda

BREWING DISCONTENT

Jul 28 , 2024 . By TIZITA SHEWAFERAW

Unhabitual, perhaps too many, Samuel Gebreyohannes, 38, used to occasionally enjoy a couple of beers at breakfast. However, he recently swit...

Fortune News

Electric Vehicle Push Leaves Investors in the Lurch

Jul 13 , 2024 . By AKSAH ITALO

Investors who rely on tractors, trucks, and field vehicles for commuting, transporting commodities, and f...

Commentaries

Fossil Fuels Arent Going Anywhere Despite Great Energy Transition Myth

Ideas and the words we use to frame them matter. For example, as the Cold War wound d...

Conflicts Upend Growth Story, Plunging Development Goals into Jeopardy

Once regarded as a rising economic star on the African continent, Ethiopia now finds...

Fineline

Leaders of the National . . .

Leaders of the National Election Board are in a charm offensive mood, of a sort. Last week, they organised a rare tour for members of the me...

When the country’s most. . .

When the country's most senior diplomats and envoys return back to their posts after two-week debriefings, they leave behind a point or two...

Editorial

Addis Abeba's Gleaming Facade Masks a Parched Metropolis

Dec 21 , 2024

The main avenues and thoroughfares of Addis Abeba have undergone an impressive faceli...

When More of Everything Leaves Less in the Bank

Dec 14 , 2024

Ethiopia's monetary policy has shifted conspicuously in recent years. Gone is the era...

Fueling Reform, the Petroleum Sector Caught Between Monopoly Missteps, Market Liberalisation

Dec 7 , 2024

For decades the Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise (EPSE), a state-owned giant ent...

Crafting Public Service Reward in a Cash-Strapped Economy

Nov 30 , 2024

In the corridors of government offices worldwide, the question of how much to pay mem...

Gallery

Parliament Approves New Cabinet Members

Oct 6 , 2021

Parliament Approves New Cabinet, Incorporates Opposition Leaders Lawmakers have approved today the nominations of 22 ministers, including three opposition leaders. Two MPs have voted against, while 12 abstained...

2020 in Posterity

Jan 5 , 2021

TIGRAY VOTES DESPITE "NULL & VOID" THREAT

Sep 9 , 2020

IN-PICTURE: LAUREATE'S RECEPTION  

Dec 14 , 2019

PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) at a Gala Dinner Called for the Awarding of the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize

May 6 , 2019

Faces, Voices of Addis Abeba

Apr 26 , 2019

Sunday With Eden

Overcoming Emotional Impulses in Decision-Making

Have you ever made a split-second decision and later wondered, "What was I thinking?...

The Daily Struggles of Power Outages, Water Shortages

Addis Abeba was eerily silent over the past weekend, shrouded in darkness. The blacko...

Life Matters

Inadequate Regulation Leaves Tenants Vulnerable to Arbitrary Rental Hikes

The rental market in Ethiopia, like in many developing economies, is characterised by...

Lasting Treatments Instead of Temporary Relief

I have always avoided taking pills unless absolutely necessary: when I am genuinely u...