Toastmasters International

Toastmasters International

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  • Dr. Hans Peter Lütjen-Dageförde
    Dr. Hans Peter Lütjen-Dageförde
    (not a XING member)
    Electronic Media in Toastmastering
    Dear Fellow Toastmasters,

    These media have been around for quite a while:
    - private websites
    - blogs
    - emails
    - chat rooms
    - internet telephoning

    My thesis is that they could be profitably used in Toastmastering to intensify communication among members between club meetings and to attract people who love the communication structures offered by those media.

    Maybe there are more media available than I am aware of at present. Could you tell me!

    I am working hard these days to motivate my fellow Club members (Hedgehog Toastmasters and Igel Toastmasters, Buxtehude, near Hamburg, Germany) to open up to those media.

    What has been your experience?

    If you should happen to read German, please have a look at toastmastering.over-blog.de,

    I look forward to getting your answers.

    Best regards,

    Hans Peter Luetjen-Dagefoerde
    VP PR Hedgehog Toastmasters
    • 17 Jan 2009, 09:14 am
  • David Faragó
    David Faragó    Group moderator
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re: Electronic Media in Toastmastering
    Hello Hans Peter,

    electronic media to assist Toastmasters is an interesting topic.

    I do use several electronic media for administrative purposes, mainly chat and email. But private websites are also useful for offering information and material, e.g. videos of the last meeting and PR flyer and giving the location of the next meeting. The most efficient electronic administrative tool is, of course, easyspeak.

    I have come accross astonishingly few blogs talking about Toastmasters. I firstly heard about Toastmasters through a forum or blog. And Mathias Raacke efficiently announces his plan to found a club in Paderborn via his blog http://www.outofcoffeeexception.de/Trackback.aspx?guid=e1890....


    But I do not think that these media can easily be used for Toastmaster-like training itself, as you have suggested on your blog, because:
    * many Toastmasters are rather uncomfortable with electronics and have difficulties, e.g. when using easy-speak.
    * Toastmasters' main intention is practicing public speaking. This can best be done without an electronic medium in between.

    There is one teaching aspect that only electronic media can offer, though: videos. I think it is very helpful to view oneself on video, especially for improving one's body language. The Mercury Toastmasters club in Berlin distributes its recordings very comfortably over the net. We plan to do this similarly in Karslruhe one day.

    That's my 2 cents....
    David
    • 31 Jan 2009, 8:57 pm