...doesn't mean you should. - NWCPHP Conference
The Northwest Center for Public Health Practice held its annual conference at William Gates Hall in August of 2006. I had the good fortune to be able to participate as Teaching Assistant for the Tools of the Trade: Risk Communication track where I was allowed to participate in the track itself, so I would know what was going on, and to help participants learn how to effectively search for information and to use PowerPoint to its best advantage for public and press presentations.
I felt a bit daunted by the task initially because I wondered how much I would really have to contribute to this highly professional crowd of public health practitioners, but I found them to be willing and eager recipients of any of the help I had to offer.
In addition to helping participants navigate the application with efficacy, I offered such gems as, "Yes, one can make that logo spin and add dancing bacteria, but really, it's not a good thing and here's why....". In the end, each participant presented his/her public health information session to the other members of the track and I felt a certain amount of pride to be directly responsible for the general improvement of their presentations over the course of the week, which perhaps would be applied to their work. (Just so I remain perfectly honest here, I never did convince Bob that his animated cartoon mosquito and the title "Seige of the Mosquitos" may not produce the desired effect for his West Nile Virus press conference - but sometimes you simply have to leave things be.)
While I learned a great deal, in situ, from the NWCPHP staff regarding public health communications, I also had prior experience in most of my LIS courses creating and watching PowerPoint presentations and had one or two "dancing mosquito" faux pas myself to learn from.
Feedback from my supervisor
Sept. 10, 2006
Dear Melissa,
Thank you for your assistance with planning and instructing the Tools of the Trade Track of the 2006 Summer Institute. As you know the track consisted of public health
professionals with diverse experience with software such as Power Point and Geographic Information Systems. The individualized instruction you provided for those workshop participants with little prior experience in Power Point greatly facilitated us in meeting our track objectives. Thank you also for assisting with the design of the pre-workshop survey. You hard work, patience and teaching skills made you a valuable member of the team.
Sincerely,
Anne M. Turner MD, MPH, MLIS
Faculty
Center for Public Health Informatics
University of Washington