This entry is cross-posted from http://lrning21.ning.com/blogs
There were some interesting reactions to a technique we tried today in our F2F session on communication called so I thought I'd blog about it to explain a bit more. The exercise was called "Extreme Slide Makeover" where I pulled some slides from presentations and challenged individuals in the PD session to improve them in 15 minutes. The ensuing discussion was interesting and made me think about what makes a presentation good. The purpose of presentations: Presentations have become almost a "default" means of communicating to a group in schools. We use them in department or team meetings, faculty meetings, and students do them often in attempts to "integrate" technology. Maybe, we overuse them when really there are more appropriate means of communicating. We do it because it's the expected format perhaps. Maybe we feel empowered standing up there with an expensive piece of technology beaming light toward a screen. Whatever the reason, we need to remember that presentation slides are VISUAL media. Therefore, we should take every opportunity to capitalize on the VISUAL impact they can make, if done well. As marketing consultant Seth Godin says, "Communication is the transfer of emotion." The visuals we choose on our slides should evoke an emotional response, I believe, every time. If we're not interested in that, why are we presenting in the first place? Send an email, or write a paper that they can take a way and read instead. I can't think of a case where someone should get up and present an audience with information and not really care whether they connect with it or find it interesting. Certainly not when we're trying to teach, emotional connection to the subject is key to student motivation, retention, and ultimately learning. One of the gurus of professional presentation design, Garr Reynolds, author of the book Presentation Zen, shares some great before and after slides here on Slideshare that illustrate the potential of well-designed slides.
Why then are there so many text-laden slides? I think one reason is because people don't know better, they've not seen enough excellent presentations (Inconvenient Truth?) to know what "good" looks like. Another reason is that it's hard work to create good, thoughtful presentations. The images are becoming easier and easier to find, but the better you get, the higher your standards become and it takes time, no question about it. A third reason is lack of comfort with the material being presented.
If you watch some of the most compelling presentations at TED; Sir Ken Robinson, Elizabeth Gilbert and others; they by and large present "naked". It's them, telling a story, something they are passionate about and know every detail intimately, to an audience that's hanging on every word. But, to present this way you really need to know what you're going to say. It's OK to carry note cards or have them in the presenter notes section of the screen, even the pros do this, just don't put them on the screen for your audience. Of course, when you see a slide full of text, you know what's coming next, the presenter reads it to you.
To help illustrate my point, we've all watched a movie in another language right, with subtitles in our native tongue? It's always amazing to me how deeply into it I can get even though I'm reading along and the words don't match the sounds spoken by the actors. Well, now imagine that same movie, but the screen, instead of showing the characters is a background like this
There were some interesting reactions to a technique we tried today in our F2F session on communication called so I thought I'd blog about it to explain a bit more. The exercise was called "Extreme Slide Makeover" where I pulled some slides from presentations and challenged individuals in the PD session to improve them in 15 minutes. The ensuing discussion was interesting and made me think about what makes a presentation good. The purpose of presentations: Presentations have become almost a "default" means of communicating to a group in schools. We use them in department or team meetings, faculty meetings, and students do them often in attempts to "integrate" technology. Maybe, we overuse them when really there are more appropriate means of communicating. We do it because it's the expected format perhaps. Maybe we feel empowered standing up there with an expensive piece of technology beaming light toward a screen. Whatever the reason, we need to remember that presentation slides are VISUAL media. Therefore, we should take every opportunity to capitalize on the VISUAL impact they can make, if done well. As marketing consultant Seth Godin says, "Communication is the transfer of emotion." The visuals we choose on our slides should evoke an emotional response, I believe, every time. If we're not interested in that, why are we presenting in the first place? Send an email, or write a paper that they can take a way and read instead. I can't think of a case where someone should get up and present an audience with information and not really care whether they connect with it or find it interesting. Certainly not when we're trying to teach, emotional connection to the subject is key to student motivation, retention, and ultimately learning. One of the gurus of professional presentation design, Garr Reynolds, author of the book Presentation Zen, shares some great before and after slides here on Slideshare that illustrate the potential of well-designed slides.
Why then are there so many text-laden slides? I think one reason is because people don't know better, they've not seen enough excellent presentations (Inconvenient Truth?) to know what "good" looks like. Another reason is that it's hard work to create good, thoughtful presentations. The images are becoming easier and easier to find, but the better you get, the higher your standards become and it takes time, no question about it. A third reason is lack of comfort with the material being presented.
If you watch some of the most compelling presentations at TED; Sir Ken Robinson, Elizabeth Gilbert and others; they by and large present "naked". It's them, telling a story, something they are passionate about and know every detail intimately, to an audience that's hanging on every word. But, to present this way you really need to know what you're going to say. It's OK to carry note cards or have them in the presenter notes section of the screen, even the pros do this, just don't put them on the screen for your audience. Of course, when you see a slide full of text, you know what's coming next, the presenter reads it to you.
To help illustrate my point, we've all watched a movie in another language right, with subtitles in our native tongue? It's always amazing to me how deeply into it I can get even though I'm reading along and the words don't match the sounds spoken by the actors. Well, now imagine that same movie, but the screen, instead of showing the characters is a background like this
