Learning Well: Imitation

Yesterday I talked about how being a visual preacher often requires you to be a Jack of all trades. Mastering all of the separate jobs involved in being a visual presenter takes time and effort - both of which seem to be in precious short supply. Because of that I want to focus on how we can learn new things and do it well. If your worst fears are true and it will take hours from your life every week to improve your presenting skills, then, to be honest, something is wrong.

Every human being learns by imitation. We have specialized brain cells called mirror neurons that light up when we see (or hear) someone else doing something. Then when it comes time for us to recreate what we saw, the same neurons fire in the same neural pathway as when we were just observing. Watching and listening to experts will rewire your brain to be able to do new things.

Surround yourself with what you want to know. Observe people who are experts. Imitate and learn.

In the coming year I'm going to put together some tutorials, videos, and screencasts to walk you through visual presenting. I plan to organize my content around these themes:

January – Finding and Selecting High Quality Digital Images
February – Inserting Media into PowerPoint (Music and Movies)
March – Photo Editing Basics
April – Presentation Skills: Speaking Visually
May – Sharing the Gospel with Technology
June – Video Editing Basics
July – PowerPoint Animations and Transitions
August – Theological and Technology
September – Audio Editing Basics
October – Technology and Gear
November – Web Based Tools
December – Putting it all Together

Do you have any suggestions or specific tutorials you'd like to see?