Is the way you’re sharing knowledge… too passive for your audience?

Sure, as the person doing the sharing — whether it’s teaching at a university, presenting in an internal meeting, or speaking at a conference keynote — you no doubt feel like you’re doing everything possible to make the ideas you’re sharing memorable, actionable, and inspiring.

But is that how your audience experiences it?

Traditionally, a presentation requires the audience merely to sit quietly and pay attention. That’s certainly convenient for the presenter — but does that passivity really help the viewers take in the information shared?

Attention spans are on the wane for students and professionals alike, and a host of new technologies offer easy distraction. Anyone who’s stood in front of an audience of almost any size in the last few years can tell you that the attention-stealing phenomena of texting in class or checking email in meetings are real.

To combat that distraction — and make presentations and discussions more productive — many businesses and universities alike are trading in the old passive model for an active one.

They’re flipping.

Teachers are experimenting with flipped classrooms, sharing a short video lecture ahead of their sessions and opening up class time for interactive discussion, activity, and work. The result — flipping the classroom is the latest trend in academia, with early results that suggest it improves the way students learn, recall, and comprehend information.

Professionals are likewise flipping their meetings, sharing a quick video rundown of the traditional presentation deck, and opening up meeting time for debates, discussions, and decisions. The result — flipped meetings have won support from innovators like LinkedIn and Amazon, and have become heralded for boosting productivity.

Video presents a tremendous opportunity for sharing ideas and information. With video, foundational information can be shared ahead of time — even rewatched by the audience as needed to review key parts — allowing more of us to trade in our roles as passive audience members and instead become active participants in learning, managing, and sharing.

Video is changing the way we teach, learn, and share ideas — from the classroom right on to the conference room. This week we saw more educational and entertaining recordings among the latest presentations shared online with the Panopto video platform.

And in the spirit of passing it on, these are just a few of the ideas shared this week with Panopto’s presentation recording software.

A Day With Digby: Your Pet’s View of the Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital
The Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine opens today’s list, with this welcoming video detailing for first-time visitors what their pets can expect from a stay — even including a dog’s-eye-view of the facilities. It’s a great example of how an organization can use video for onboarding — both for customers and their furry friends alike.

‘Dirty Politics’: A Public Lecture by Nicky Hager
Join the University of Waikato for this recorded webcast keynote with investigative journalist Nicky Hager. Hager discusses his book “Dirty Politics,” delving into attack politics in the New Zealand political environment in the age of social media, and weaves in concepts from his previous books include The Hollow Men, Secret Power, Seeds of Distrust and Other People’s Wars.

Ocean Noise: Sources, Effects, and the “Impending Doom” of Atlantic Seismic Surveys
Sit in with Duke University Chair of Marine Conservation Technology Douglas Nowacek and learn more about the effects of increasing noise levels in marine waters in this recorded lecture. Nowacek digs into the research on changes in ocean noise levels, and offers potential solutions for reducing those volumes and preventing much of the disruption oceanic noise causes for sea life.

Beyond the Learning Management System (Beyond the Virtual Learning Environment)
Hack Education’s Audrey Watters comes to Newcastle University to discuss the state of education and technology in this webcast conference address. Watters contends ed-tech must not be about building digital walls around students and content and courses, but rather, building connections and networks. She calls on learning technologists to “move beyond the LMS, back to and forward to an independent Web and help our students take full advantage of it.”

Death Penalty Debate – UC Hastings College of Law
Join the debate with the University of California Hastings College of Law, and the Hastings Criminal Law Society challenges two of the school’s leading minds to answer the question: Should the California attorney general have appealed a federal court’s ruling against the state’s administration of the death penalty?

Seven Databases in Seven Weeks: MEMSQL
The team at Carnegie Mellon is introducing seven databases over seven weeks! Join in on the first session with this recorded guest lecture to get to know all there is to find out about MEMSQL, an in-memory database system built for speed.

Counselling: Fit it into your career!
Kristi Kerford of the Trent University Career Centre offers this flipped classroom style presentation on the value of counselling as a tool for helping people explore their career paths and facilitate change in adapting positive strategies in managing the way they work.

Try It For Yourself!
Panopto makes it easy for anyone, anywhere to record presentations and share them online, both as live streaming webcasts and recorded on-demand video. To see how Panopto can help you share your ideas, contact our team for a free trial today.