I have focused some during the last few years on presentation skills.
Here is a recording of a presentation that I wanted to share by Rick Altman, author of “Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck, And how you can make them better”
Here is a great slide deck on simple design from Slideshare.
I am a strong believer in storytelling!
You can check out some of my previous posts and papers on narrative, digital storytelling, and effective presentation skills!
Today Mike Pascoe shared this slide deck created by Alex Rister on Facebook. I liked it so I had to share it!!!
I have been interested in instructional communication and how academics present for some time. My interest began a number of years ago with my love for storytelling and hate for PowerPoint (or should I say the poor use of PowerPoint).
[Note: See below for related works]
I recently came across this video by Hans Rosling. I love his use of technology to tell this story. I was struck by his use of story, inflection, technology… to name a few things. I kept thinking about how this builds on what “weather men” have been doing for years but of course it does so much more.
So is this a new form of presenting? Is this a new form of storytelling? Not necessarily. And it certainly isn’t realistic (at least today) for the common person to tell stories like this. But it is certainly worth a look and serves as some inspiration to do more with technology, storytelling, and presenting!!!
Related Work
Joni Dunlap and I just published an ECAR research bulletin called “Situational Qualities Exhibited by Exceptional Presenters”.
Bad presentations are commonplace, but rather than focus on what is wrong with bad presentations, the authors looked at what makes an exceptional presentation. They referenced recent work on the aesthetic qualities of learning experiences by Patrick Parrish and others, which describe aesthetic learning experiences as those that involve learners in the right level of challenge and heightened engagement. Aesthetic learning experiences are memorable and often transformative, leaving learners with enhanced confidence and capabilities—the very definition of exceptional. By attending to the situational qualities of aesthetic learning experiences, presenters are more likely to create exceptional presentations that establish relevance and engagement—and, therefore, have a better chance at achieving specific learning objectives and outcomes. To do this, the authors identified the most viewed presentations on the TED website as the sample for their study. They created a matrix based on the situational qualities of aesthetic learning experiences and analyzed the top six “most viewed” presentations (as of July 15, 2011).
Citation for this Work: Dunlap, Joanna C., and Patrick R. Lowenthal. “Situational Qualities Exhibited by Exceptional Presenters.” (Research Bulletin). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, October 18, 2011, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.
You can access it here: http://www.educause.edu/Resources/SituationalQualitiesExhibitedb/238961
If you have problems getting it, just let me know and I get you a copy.
For years I have been interested in how people present (both face-to-face and online) and how they use technology to deliver effective presentations. For instance, the following are a few things I have done over the years on this topic:
But one of the places I look to each year for some inspiration is SlideShare’s “World’s Best Presentation Contest”.
Here are the results from 2010:
http://www.slideshare.net/contest/worlds-best-presentation-contest-2010
I got an email the other day from a colleague asking which was better — Jing or Camtasia? Then later that day, a faculty member stopped by and wanted to talk about whether she should upgrade from Jing to Camtasia. While I am more used to the question of Camtasia or Captivate, I figured I should probably get my thoughts down on this whole Jing vs. Camtasia question.
The fact that people are even asking this question shows how Jing has grown in popularity over the past year or two (see the Emerging Top 100 for how it has moved up over the past few years) and makes my heart warm. Why you ask? Well, I am a huge fan of Jing. Sure, I have been using Camtasia for years but I find myself the last year or two using Jing more day-to-day than Camtasia. So you might think that I would recommend Jing over Camtasia. Not so fast.
While I think Jing is a must-have tool for any educator, in many ways I find that Jing is the gate-way drug that leads most serious users to eventually purchase Camtasia. Why? Well there are certain things that Jing just can’t do that Camtasia can. But don’t get me wrong; the things Jing does, it does so well that often users like me (who have both) still find themselves using Jing more often than Camtasia. Let me explain.
Jing and Camtasia are two different applications from TechSmith. These two apps are typically used to create screencasts (though they each can be used for much more). And while there are many other applications you could use to create screencasts, Jing and Camtasia are my two favorite applications.
Jing (+ screencast.com)
Jing is a cross-platform “free” application (though you can upgrade to a pro account for extra features) that you can download at www.jingproject.com. The free version enables you to record up to 5 minute long screencasts. You can then save the screencasts to your computer or upload them to screencast.com to distribute. However, these screencasts (which are in a .flv format if you are using the free version) aren’t meant to be edited so you have to get it right the first time or re-record it. You can upgrade to a pro version of Jing for about $15 a year. With this, you essentially get three things:
1. A better video format (.mp4) that can be edited in an external application (though it is often easier to simply re-record than edit);
2. The ability to ftp your screencasts to your own server;
3. The ability to toggle back and forth to a Webcam during your screencasts.
So the bottom line is that if you are new to screencasting, or if your screencasts can be limited to 5 minutes, or if you don’t need to edit your screencasts then Jing might be all you need. For instance, in my day-to-day job of supporting faculty, Jing is perfect to create individual “How-to” screencasts for individual faculty. Jing is also perfect to do things like narrate mini-lectures (think less than 5 minute PowerPoint presentations). But if you want a more polished screencast that is longer than 5 minutes that will give you the option to zoom in and add call outs then you might want to invest in Camtasia.
While less compelling, it is important to note that Jing is also great at taking screenshots and annotating them.
For more on how to use Jing, watch the following screencast:
Camtasia
Camtasia on the other hand is kind of like Jing on steroids but it comes at price ($300+). But for that price, you get the ability to create screencasts that are longer than 5 minutes. You can also easily edit these screencasts (if you are using Camtasia Studio on a PC), add additional media, call outs, and effects, the ability to zoom in and out, and finally the ability to export the screencasts in a number of different formats. In addition, Camtasia integrates seamlessly with PowerPoint (to narrate PowerPoint presentations) as well as gives you the ability to add flash-based quizzes to your screencasts.
So where does this leave us? Well, I believe based on my experience that it is less a question of either or but rather a question of when do you use each one. I think most if not all Instructional Technologists need to have both tools in their toolbox. For day-to-day just-in-time support (whether for screen captures or for screencasts that can be less than 5 minutes long), Jing is quick, easy, and indispensable. However, there often comes a time when one needs to create longer, more polished screencasts that need to incorporate various media, and be edited. For these times, Camtasia is a must!
Do you agree or disagree? Did I cover all the main points? What did I miss?
I am a huge fan of SlideShare (www.slideshare.net) and other presentation hosting tools. If for no other reason, these tools allow me — I no longer print out copies of my slides to handout (which by the way I have argued elsewhere is never a good idea because we should instead be thinking about how we can hand out short, ideally, one page handouts). But these tools offer many other benefits:
–Makes one’s work available to a larger audience
–Gives one easy place to direct people to (e.g., go to www.slideshare.net/plowenthal to see my presentations…)
–Allows one the ability to track how many times their presentations have been viewed, added as a favorite, tweeted
–Allows one the ability to embed presentations across multiple web sites and learning management systems
–The ability to find others with similar interests
–Share one’s work with other educators
–Find open education resources for one’s class
And the list goes on. But I just noticed that you can also create playlists. So here is an example of a SlideShare playlist.
I am a strong believer in attending and presenting at conferences for professional development. Each year I try to attend the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) –http://www.aera.net/AnnualMeeting.htm — as well as the annual meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) – http://www.aect.org/events/.
As a side note, in addition, whenever possible I also attend ISTE’s – http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/2010/ — Sloan-C’s – http://www.sloanconsortium.org/aln — and EDUCAUSE’s –http://net.educause.edu/ConferencesSeminarsandInstitutes/31 — conferences to name a few.
So when I plan to attend a conference, I strive whenever possible to also present at the conference. Often, I will even try to present more than once.
Well this last fall I went a little overboard and during basically a three week stretch I presented 11 times at three different conferences (two of the presentations though involved two parts so it was actually only 9 different sessions). To be fair, when I originally completed the conference proposals, I never expected to have them all accepted. But through this process I learned a few things that I will take with me moving forward:
1. Never present more than 3 times — ideally strive for only 2 presentations — at a conference.
I enjoy attending sessions as much as I do presenting at sessions but I found that when I attend a conference where I present more than 2-3 times, I rarely attend that many sessions because I am spending most of my time preparing for my own sessions. Also, be prepared that they might accept any and all proposals you submit so think twice before sending in a bunch of different proposals. If you want to present 2-3 times, only send in 3-4 proposals (assuming at least one will not be approved).
2. Always bring business cards to each session.
3. Find the room you are planned to present in.
Checkout the room you plan to present in before your session to get an idea of the location, room size, layout, Internet access… to name a few. During EDUCAUSE 09 I spent over 30 minutes trying to locate the room where the poster sessions were being held. I barely found it in time to put up my poster before the session began.
4. Show Up Early.
Be sure to show up at the room earlier enough right before your session to ensure that such things as an LCD projector are there. At AECT, the hotel would remove the LCD projectors at the end of the day which meant that the first sessions each day often began with a rush to locate an LCD projector.
5. Create Handouts.
See Tufte’s work about this — or check out Improving the Design of PowerPoint Presentations or a Review of the Cognitive Style of PowerPoint — but avoid giving copies of your slides as handouts. If you want to give a handout (and I recommend it), then create a handout–ideally no longer than one page (front and back).
6. Determine the how many handouts you need.
Ask people who have presented in the past and/or the conference staff how many people typically attend each session so that you can have the right number of handouts. Most presentations, in my experience, tend to have 10-15 attendees. Therefore, you are often safe with 20-25 handouts. However, during my last three week conference stretch, I had one session with over 75 people in it and another with about 35.
6. Post the slides online.
While I am not a fan of handing out my PowerPoint slides as handouts, I do try to post my slides online so others (both who attend the conference and those who didn’t) can access my slides. But rather than giving out some long URL (e.g., http://www.slideshare.net/plowenthal/educause-2009-tweeting-the-night-away-using-twitter-to-enhance-social-presence) or even using a tinyurl (e.g., http://tinyurl.com/ybjepyr) which might confuse people, simply point them to a Webpage with all of your presentations (e.g., http://www.slideshare.net/plowenthal).
7. Avoid traveling on a day you present.
This might be silly but try to avoid this if possible. At AECT this past fall I had to present on Halloween but I really wanted to get home in time to trick or treat with my kids. I carefully picked my flight to help make this all happen but guess what… my flight was delayed.
I am sure I am forgetting a few things but this list is a start.
The CU Online Handbook
Edited by
Patrick R. Lowenthal
David Thomas
Anna Thai
Brian Yuhnke
Download the eBook
Download the entire eBook (pdf)
Download Individual Chapters
Introduction
Patrick R. Lowenthal
Trends and Issues with Online Learning
1. From Reluctant and Reticent to Engaged and Enthusiastic: The Passage to Online Teaching
Susan Giullian
2. Preparing Special Education Teachers Through Online Instruction
Donna Sobel
4. Make, Share, Find: Web 2.0 and Informal Learning
Phil Antonelli
Technology in Action
5. The Advantages of a Ning Social Network Within a Higher Education Program
Laura Summers
6. Fresh and Forward-thinking: Using Blogs for Educational Purposes
Joanna C. Dunlap & Ellen Stevens
7. Hanging on by a Thread
Dorothy F. Garrison-Wade
8. Instructional Uses of Twitter
Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal
9. Using Audio for Giving Feedback to Project Teams: A Useful Complement to Track Changes
Brent G. Wilson
10. Wordle… Just for Phluff?
Joanna C. Dunlap
11. A Teaching Video Project Brought to Closure
Farah A. Ibrahim
12. Improving the Design of PowerPoint Presentations
Patrick R. Lowenthal
Emerging Tools and Applications
Resources
Down-and-dirty Guidelines for Effective Discussions in Online Courses
Joanna C. Dunlap
Protocols for Online Discussions
Joanna C. Dunlap
Improving the Odds of Effective Collaborative Work in Online Courses
Joanna C. Dunlap
