Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to assess your skills (Please note the word skill) in explaining things in simple manner. This may be an essential requirement of modern day economists to come out of the world of jargons and behave in a responsible manner to perform the role of an 'organic intellectual'. While the value of academic rigor is not undermined, its for you (not for the common people). As an 'organic intellectual' you should play the role of a connector between difficult and complex policy issues and the minds of the common people who are not trained in the specific skill sets that you already have. So, the bottom-line is, you should be able to explain technical things in the simplest possible demystified manner irrespective of the level of skills endowed by your audience.
Marks Assigned for this Presentation: 10 marks (Group Marking)
Situation: In a typical remote Indian village say "Dharampur" (a hypothetical village most often referred by my Guruji Prof. Praveen Jha to explain things in simpler ways), the village Sarpanch is entitled to prepare budgets and other policy documents for the development of the village. While the Sarpanch and his colleagues are capable to understand the situation, they lack specific knowledge in statistical tools for analyzing data. The Sarpanch requested me to train her colleagues on basic statistical tools that may be useful for them in undertaking their responsibilities. I have requested you to undertake the task on my behalf. You have another added challenge. None of your audience understand English terms. So you have to explain things in Hindi and not in English.
Task:
(a) You are 2 students in a group and you have to prepare a slide presentation on the topics assigned to you.
(b) Your task is to explain the topic in the simplest possible manner (You play the role of a TEACHER and me, my other colleagues and your junior batches as the AUDIENCE).
(c) Your presentation is scheduled on 20th April 2013 in the sequence as below.
First Presentation: Mean and Covariance by Swati and Mitali
Second Presentation: Variance and Standard Deviation by Preeti and Amrita
Third Presentation: Correlation Coefficient by Jyoti and Navneet
Fourth Presentation: Regression Analysis by Santosh and Sakshi
Your presentation should cover the meaning, method of calculation, mathematical properties, real life used in research and advocacy and so on.
Me and my colleagues as well as your junior students shall make all efforts to play the role of common audience who is well versed in linguistic skills but are quite ignorant on these statistical indicators and tools. ( in real life in your career, more often than not, you shall face people who are otherwise knowledgeable but they do not posses the same skill sets in statistics, viz. policy activists, elected representatives, etc. To make them understand things you want to explain is your responsibility (not theirs!).
So, best of luck and feel free to contact me should there be any doubt over the issue.
Things to Keep in Mind (ALWAYS)
(1) Never consider that the people in the audience benches are fools. They know many things that you may not know. It is only the current discussion they are not being able to follow as you are using too much jargons and tools of analysis. Try to be in their shoes and try to address their queries in a manner that they may be able to follow. Be interactive. You can not have this presentation in a lecture mode. Your classroom should be participatory. Give real life examples and make your audience identify these examples in their own life.
(2) Never underestimate your own ability to undertake the hardest possible tasks. The current task is too simple for that matter.
(3) We are economists. We work in society with common people. Use the mode of communication that most people (including you) are able to relate. What matters is the content and not the language. Your success depends on your ability to make the audience understand what you say and not through establishment of your intellectual credentials. Use Hindi as the predominant mode of communication. However, do not use literary translations of terms that will kill the purpose of demystification. You may interact with other students in the university to prepare a glossary of terms before preparing the slides. You may prepare your slides in English, but then use images, graphs, and visual things as substitutes for "WORDS"
(4) Have an open mind to the queries. Do not behave in a manner that your audience feel offence. Respect your audience. Have patience, have a smiling face throughout your presentation. Be in informal dress during this presentation. Your audience should be able to relate with you, then only they will feel free to ask more questions. Portray yourself as a helping hand and not as an expert.
Best wishes,
Siba Sankar Mohanty
Teacher: Course-Econometrics
Department of Economics, Doon University, Dehradun
Marks Assigned for this Presentation: 10 marks (Group Marking)
Situation: In a typical remote Indian village say "Dharampur" (a hypothetical village most often referred by my Guruji Prof. Praveen Jha to explain things in simpler ways), the village Sarpanch is entitled to prepare budgets and other policy documents for the development of the village. While the Sarpanch and his colleagues are capable to understand the situation, they lack specific knowledge in statistical tools for analyzing data. The Sarpanch requested me to train her colleagues on basic statistical tools that may be useful for them in undertaking their responsibilities. I have requested you to undertake the task on my behalf. You have another added challenge. None of your audience understand English terms. So you have to explain things in Hindi and not in English.
Task:
(a) You are 2 students in a group and you have to prepare a slide presentation on the topics assigned to you.
(b) Your task is to explain the topic in the simplest possible manner (You play the role of a TEACHER and me, my other colleagues and your junior batches as the AUDIENCE).
(c) Your presentation is scheduled on 20th April 2013 in the sequence as below.
First Presentation: Mean and Covariance by Swati and Mitali
Second Presentation: Variance and Standard Deviation by Preeti and Amrita
Third Presentation: Correlation Coefficient by Jyoti and Navneet
Fourth Presentation: Regression Analysis by Santosh and Sakshi
Your presentation should cover the meaning, method of calculation, mathematical properties, real life used in research and advocacy and so on.
Me and my colleagues as well as your junior students shall make all efforts to play the role of common audience who is well versed in linguistic skills but are quite ignorant on these statistical indicators and tools. ( in real life in your career, more often than not, you shall face people who are otherwise knowledgeable but they do not posses the same skill sets in statistics, viz. policy activists, elected representatives, etc. To make them understand things you want to explain is your responsibility (not theirs!).
So, best of luck and feel free to contact me should there be any doubt over the issue.
Things to Keep in Mind (ALWAYS)
(1) Never consider that the people in the audience benches are fools. They know many things that you may not know. It is only the current discussion they are not being able to follow as you are using too much jargons and tools of analysis. Try to be in their shoes and try to address their queries in a manner that they may be able to follow. Be interactive. You can not have this presentation in a lecture mode. Your classroom should be participatory. Give real life examples and make your audience identify these examples in their own life.
(2) Never underestimate your own ability to undertake the hardest possible tasks. The current task is too simple for that matter.
(3) We are economists. We work in society with common people. Use the mode of communication that most people (including you) are able to relate. What matters is the content and not the language. Your success depends on your ability to make the audience understand what you say and not through establishment of your intellectual credentials. Use Hindi as the predominant mode of communication. However, do not use literary translations of terms that will kill the purpose of demystification. You may interact with other students in the university to prepare a glossary of terms before preparing the slides. You may prepare your slides in English, but then use images, graphs, and visual things as substitutes for "WORDS"
(4) Have an open mind to the queries. Do not behave in a manner that your audience feel offence. Respect your audience. Have patience, have a smiling face throughout your presentation. Be in informal dress during this presentation. Your audience should be able to relate with you, then only they will feel free to ask more questions. Portray yourself as a helping hand and not as an expert.
Best wishes,
Siba Sankar Mohanty
Teacher: Course-Econometrics
Department of Economics, Doon University, Dehradun
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