As a general rule, I detest using a microphone when giving a lecture. For a small person, I have a reasonably big voice when required, and I can project to the back of the lecture theatres we have at work without much problem. I hate the fading in and out of the volume when you turn your head, and the general âtinnyâ timbre of a badly amplified voice.
However, Iâve got a filthy cold at the moment â my voice has become a whispery, scratchy thing â so I decided that Iâd better give in and use the mic. We have an unwieldy thing which hangs around the neck on a stethoscope-like arrangement, attached to the front desk by a long wire in which I was constantly entangling myself. The only good thing that came of the whole sorry business was my accidental discovery a fail-safe method of rousing sleepy undergraduates in a 9am lecture: simply cough explosively into the microphone without muting the sound. I must say that I was gratified by the response. About half of the lecture theatre instantaneously rose about half a metre off their seats. Thatâll learn âem.
1
Hee hee! That's hilarious . . . I'll have to remember that. I have an unfortunate penchant for lapsing into profanity when I think I've lost their attention . . . I don't swear at them or anything, mind you, it's just that I inadvertently start slipping in some of my more favorite, saltier phrases. It's a terrible habit and I should cut it out, on the other hand they sometimes perk up and wake up a bit (perhaps to mentally begin drafting letters of complaint to my dean?)----- Yep, swearing would work too. The most surreal 'student-waking' ploy I ever experienced was perpetrated by a lecturer of mine when I was an undergraduate. In a long, and rather dull lecture on nematodes (not his fault -- there's little you can do to make nematodes fascinating), he suddenly and without any ceremony at all put up a slide of The Flumps (http://www.80snostalgia.com/classictv/flumps/ ). Completely deadpan, he started introducing the characters, indicating each with his pointy stick. Then he just moved on, without further comment, to a slide of the digestive tract of the nematode. I'm still in awe of him, and I could still draw you a diagram of the inside of a nematode, so it obviously worked.by bsag @ 20/02/2003 9:02 pm • Permalink