What Great Lecturers Learned from YouTubers and Podcasters
Two friends just returned from Milan. As they flip through their photos, they're surprised by what they see. One's photos are filled with grand cathedrals and historic piazzas, the other's with fashionable Milanese and chic boutiques. Same trip, vastly different memories.
This tale illustrates a simple truth about human nature: we tend to notice and remember what already interests us. It also hints at something more profound – a principle that great educators have long understood and leveraged:
- Most people don't care about most things.
- Everyone cares about something.
- You can use what people already care about to make them care about almost anything.
Let's explore how some of the best communicators put this principle into practice.
Roman Mars
Roman Mars, the host of '99% Invisible', has made a career out of making people care about things they never knew they cared about. His mission? "To get people to engage with the design that they care about so they begin to pay attention to all forms of design."
In his TED Talk, Mars accomplishes something remarkable: he gets a room full of people (and millions online) utterly captivated by... wait for it... flag design. Yes, flags. Those pieces of fabric you probably haven't thought about since elementary school.
How does he do it? By connecting flag design to things people already care about: identity, history, civic pride. Suddenly, a seemingly ordinary flag becomes a symbol of a city's identity.
Vsauce
Michael Stevens, the creator behind the YouTube channel Vsauce, has a similar approach. His strategy? Find the hidden connections between the mundane and the mind-blowing.
Stevens puts it this way: "If you look closely enough and you take the time, anything can be interesting to anyone because everything is related in some way to something they care about."
For instance, did you know that blue eyes aren't actually blue? They don't contain blue pigment; they appear blue for the same reason the sky does – something called Rayleigh scattering. Suddenly, eye color isn't just about genetics or beauty – it's about physics, light, and the nature of color itself.
Bringing It to the Classroom: Your Turn to Spark Curiosity
As lecturers, we can apply these strategies to engage our students more effectively. The key lies in getting to know our students - their interests, hobbies, and passions. Consider using informal chats, brief surveys, or even social media to gain these insights.
Once we have a sense of what our students care about, we can look for creative connections to our subject matter. This might involve drawing analogies between course concepts and popular culture, relating historical events to current affairs, or linking abstract theories to everyday experiences.
Pro tip: Consider using AI for both of those tasks, it usually works well!
If you believe that our role as educators extends beyond mere information transfer, then these strategies might offer new possibilities. They present opportunities to spark curiosity, cultivate interest, and potentially ignite a lifelong passion in our students.
This post and image were created with the help of Claude.ai and ChatGPT.
