Monday 12 November 2007

Of Learning and Teaching

Today I have been mainly preparing for some seminars tomorrow.

Andy and I have been asked to talk about using Powerpoint and Word as well as how to give good presentations. So today I've been creating a presentation on presentations entitled "The Presentation of all Presentations". It wasn't until I wrote it did I realise how it sounded. But hell, I'll roll with it. I think it's possibly one of the best presentations I've written. So perhaps it is the presentation of all presentations....?

Pretty much covers points and tips on how to do a good presentation. Stuff I should possibly follow myself. Here are my slide notes and key points:

Slide 1
  • Introduce who you are and where you are from is relevant
  • Give the tasty bits of your presentation
  • But not the structure, give that as you go
  • Tell them that they can either ask any questions during the presentation or to wait until afterwards
Slide 2
  • You are the presentation
  • Notes, slides and their contents just support materials
  • Try to keep to five bullet points or less
  • A picture is worth a thousand words (describe the front of the building – why not just use a pictures?)
  • Use hyperlinks to websites or other documents
  • Keep your notes simple, they are there to jog your memory not to read from
  • Keep it Simple Stupid
Slide 3
  • Rule of Three, find three main points for your presentation and create it around them
  • This creates the bulk of the presentation
  • Make sure you know what you are talking about so you don’t have to constant refer to notes
  • Make sure you know the majority of the audiences background, it lets you target them better
Slide 4
  • Try to stay relaxed
  • Humour goes a long way, tell a joke or a funny story relating to your subject
  • Don’t read your slides or your notes. They are only an aid
  • Don’t worry about any mistakes you make, never say sorry for them
  • Confidence is everything. Look like you know what you are doing and no one will question it
Slide 5
  • Speak slow, it gives the audience time to register what you are saying
  • Talk to individuals, it brings the audience into the presentation
  • Think about each section of the presentation
  • Take pauses, they let the audience digest your points
Slide 6
  • Use anything you can think of to get your point across. Short videos, props, anything
  • People tend to remember the last thing they are told over everything else. So end with something powerful
  • Read the audience, they will tell you when to move on to the next section
  • Always give reference to your research, etc
Slide 7
  • Thank your audience for listening
  • Ask for any questions

Yes yes, sound advice (in note form) for any who wants to give a presentation! Or maybe not, who knows? Either way it should be good. I just hope that my cough doesn't act up too much tomorrow (yes I'm still ill). As it still acts up when I'm talking. So it would be a huge shame if I can't do this tomorrow. Especially now that I've prepared an awesome presentation!

I've also got to get a presentation ready for some staff on Wednesday. Andy and I are talking about all our projects this year and he wants me to talk about my blog (hopefully I won't have any rude comments on here for them to read) and about mySC. So all that should be good.

Mentioning mySC reminds me I said I would show a screen of what she looks like now. Screens coming soon! I've also developed an office for it now. Just awaiting content. Still pondering if it's possible to have it built dynamically by the users. It might be possible, it might not. We shall see!

Which also reminds me to find that raster to vector changing site... found it! It may be useful...

The only other news I have for you is Andy has trimmed his beard. He does now and then. Otherwise he gets into trouble for pretending to be sandpaper. I will report on it's growth rate until he saws it off next.