Mix it up

Do you mix it up?  Our students’ attention span is short perhaps 10 – 15 minutes. Some might concentrate on a topic for a little more but generally 20 minutes might be rule of thumb for most.  You should therefore try to design your classes or lectures in segments. For example, in a 60 minute class, you might want to commence with a brief brainstorming activity for about 5 minutes, then you could lecture for the first 15 minutes and incidentally in many cases, the regular PowerPoint presentation is not much different from the lecture apart from its visual impact.  After the lecture you might want to incorporate a group activity for the second 15 minutes and then lecture for another 15 minutes. It is good to have a culminating activity to reinforce or summarize what has been covered in the class in the remaining 10 minutes. Lets mix it up? How do you mix it up?