Chapter 3 - Celebrating Presenters

They snooze, you lose: Chapter 3 – Celebrating Presenters

In chapter three, Burmark (2011) focuses on successful presentation delivery. She discusses major styles like the lecturer, the entertainer and the motivational speaker. Taking the best concepts from all three styles and combining them, results in a fourth category called the educator. Steve Jobs has ten tips in relation to educational speaking which include fine tuning the physical nature of the presentation. The presentation can be customized to the audience’s learning style by utilizing Howard Gardner’s eight multiple intelligence measures.

Burmark (2011) successfully advances styles of presentation. She generally draws upon lucid examples from the film and entertainment industry, which helps to bring her points to light. Ferris Bueller’s teacher is an outstanding representation of a mind numbing lecturer. Billy Graham, on the other hand was able execute the lecturer style to great success by engaging his audience with short entertaining sermons.

The entertainer’s style is not so much to engage the audience as it is to disengage them from their normal awareness and put them in a dangling state of mind. From my standpoint, the most popular and profitable entertainers are very good at presentations in this style.

The companies I have worked in the past have all brought in paid motivational speakers to cover topics such as time management and innovation. Generally, I have been considerably mesmerized by the power of these presenters. The better ones quickly induce a state of deep reflection that prevails even after the presentation is over. As a learner, this style is highly successful with me.

Burmark (2011) brought Steve Job’s ten presentations tips to my mind and while they all make sense after hearing them, not all of them are widely used in everyday presentations. The one that caught my attention the most was – pause for effect. It’s a minute, but underused strategy. Jobs talent is referred to as the educator category, a style that is grounded in helping the audience retain information.

A good presenter, regardless of style, will continually be tapping into multiple intelligences in their presentations. Howard Gardner explains the multiple intelligences by acknowledging that students learn in many different ways. I fall into a mix of linguistic and spatial intelligences. I think and learn well from images, but don’t do very well with videos, preferring instead to read.

References

Burmark, L. (2011). Celebrating presenters. In They snooze, you lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations (pp. 43-57). San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.

Newell, L, (2012). Week 4 - Diiging and Flick-r-ing. Retrieved from: http://butleratutb.pbworks.com/w/page/50572376/Week%204%20-%20Diiging%20and%20Flick-r-ing%20%28Sp2012%29

They snooze, you lose, Ch.2

They snooze, you lose: Chapter 2 - Creating slides and handouts

In chapter two, Burmark (2011) elaborates on the usability of Web presentations, handouts and slides. Typical scenarios of creating a presentation with slides, handouts, then a narration is ineffective and boring. The three elements of the scenario are not the root of the problem. The problem lies in making all three elements identical and therefore redundant. Instead, the three elements should be interconnected and complementary. The purpose of slides is to present what is not available in handouts – full color. The best way to further knowledge is to include text and pictures in the slides. The handout, a different medium, has to complement the slide. It is a necessary written document and should be handed out. It should not be introduced as a link on the Web. To prevent the audience from taking needless comprehensive notes, the handouts contain all references to books, websites and other resources mentioned in the talk. Accompanying the references, the handout needs words for each picture shown in the presentation slides. Linking a picture with some words solidifies learning. The picture quickly becomes prior knowledge and proceeds to transform the unknown words into the comprehensible.

My thoughts: Burmark (2011) has several good ideas to perfect a Powerpoint presentation. The most powerful idea is to put in writing all of the important reference data, so the audience isn’t scrambling to jot it down on the sidelines of their handouts. It is also of extreme importance that the oral presentation augment the slide not just repeat it. It’s actually the only way to reduce the number of words on the slide. If done this way, the slide becomes an anchor to bring the listener back to the topic on hand if they get lost in the details of the talking.

References

Burmark, L. (2011). Creating slides and handouts. In They snooze, you lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations (pp. 25-41). San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.

Newell, L, (2012). Week 3 - Blogging and Boxing (Sp2012) Retrieved from: http://butleratutb.pbworks.com/w/page/50304232/Week%203%20-%20Blogging%20and%20Boxing%20%28Sp2012%29

They snooze, you lose, Ch.1

They snooze, you lose: Chapter 1

Chapter one of “They snooze, you lose” is an exposition on the current practices in educational Powerpoint presentations. Due to heavy reuse of templates and overuse of words, many modern Powerpoint presentations reduce influential presentations to the mundane. The problem is not with Powerpoint itself, but with the proper use of the tool. A myriad of adjustments prevail to enhance existing presentations to boost their usefulness as a learning tool. The proper choice of templates defines the overall quality of the presentation and the must complement the content and not conflict with it. We read from left to right in English, so the work must accommodate this flow.

Because color enhances learning and retention, it is essential that the presenter have a grounded understanding of color theory. Yellow, for instance draws attention the fastest and is valuable for overall text and highlighting key points. A background color must not reduce the readability and visual contrast of the material. Generally, blues and greens have a calming effect, and are prime choices for the background color and provide good contrast with white or yellow text.

The writer should carefully consider not going overboard on font types. Two fonts, one serif and one non-serif with widely spaced character kerning are ideal such as Times New Roman and Arial. The presenter must consider a work that has fewer than 40 words per slide and is readable in less than 3 seconds, such as a billboard. Font size dictates legibility at the back of the room and interacts with the number of words available. Using fewer than 40 words allows an adequate font size.

I have been a witness to way too many of these boring presentations. My biggest disagreement is using 12 point font and showing an Excel graph of company progress. My second biggest complaint is having the presenter reading the slide, which I can do just fine myself. I long ago discovered the value of color. It is more than amazing in that in can capture and actually create a mood. Choosing wisely puts the audience in a mood of receptiveness. When I first learned what a font was, I embarked upon a mission of amassing as many as I could. After gathering many hundreds of them, I realized that it looks silly and cartoonish to use many fonts in one work. The idea of making a slide as readable as a billboard is a new concept to me. I find it quite compelling and a challenge to implement.

References

Burmark, L. (2011). Creating slides and handouts. In They snooze, you lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations (pp. 25-41). San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.

Newell, L, (2012). Week 3 - Blogging and Boxing (Sp2012) Retrieved from: http://butleratutb.pbworks.com/w/page/50304232/Week%203%20-%20Blogging%20and%20Boxing%20%28Sp2012%29

Copyright rev2

Copyright Rev.   

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Copyright by Richard Wilson

Revision History:

Rev 0.2            02/05/2012
Re-released under a new title name – “Copyright”.
I changed my favorite background, the default blue one, to a lesser used, but equally appealing blue and gray background. I reduced my word count from an average of 36 per slide to 27 per slide by taking out extraneous material. I added the US government copyright seal as a graphic to amplify that copyright is a law. I yellow highlighted nearly one word per line. I think this help focus and retention. I changed the name of the presentation from “Building Creative Expression” to “Copyright”. I left justified the page title headers. They seem to command faster attention as a left to right flow per Burmark.

Finally, I took the liberty of making my Reference citations a larger font size than the standard APA 12 point so the audience can read the citations from the back of the room.

Rev 0.1            01/27/2012
First Release. Released as “Building Creative Expression”.

 

Copyright rev1

Building creative expression

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My experience creating the Powerpoint slide ver 1

Creating the Powerpoint slide on copyright was a very educational experience.
I did not realize how encompassing the default copyright laws are. They
are not appropriate without modification if you want to publish. On the
contrary placing something freely in the public domain is a bad idea because
it may be stolen and commercialized with no benefit to the original producer.
Come to the rescue copyright management sites, such as copyleft for software,
wikimedia commons for art, videos and music and Creative Commons for licensing
anything in general with 6 levels of licensing.