When Jay Margalus, who teaches video-game design at DePaul University, gets in front of his students, he’s not all that long-winded.
“Everybody is familiar with the teacher who thinks they are imparting some sort of wisdom on you, and that you are the receptacle for that wisdom for the hour and a half that you are in their class and that’s it,” said Margalus. “The way that I teach is by providing context for students to learn, then allowing them to learn by embodying that thinking and taking the paths I want them to explore.”
When Margalus addresses a room full of physicians and medical students as a keynote speaker at September’s ChangeMedEd™ 2017 National Conference, the audience will differ. His style will not. Rather than standing beside a screen overpopulated with text, Margalus plans to present images. And instead of a lecture, he hopes to create an experience.
“As part of the way I like to teach, I don’t really put any words on my slides,” he said. “I mostly use objects and pictures to make my points. I find it to be a much more meaningful way of teaching.”
Taking place Sept. 14–16 in Chicago, ChangeMedEd aims to further the work of the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative by bringing together innovators from medical and health professions education, health systems and related fields. David B. Nash, MD, dean of Philadelphia’s Jefferson College of Population Health, also will deliver a keynote address. Registration is open until Aug. 31.
