With presentations less than 2 weeks away, most of my time this week will be practicing my presentation. I think an ideal PowerPoint is one that does not take away focus from the presenter, but also adds to the presentation visually. It supports the presentation, but does not distract. I think visualizing statistics in general is hard, so the PowerPoint enables the audience to understand what the numbers mean. Pictures are really important to add interest. The presentation also has to be fast moving, but relate to the presenter's point as they express it.
Looking back on my Seminar presentation last year, I basically didn't do any of what I listed above, or did it pretty badly. I think for the type of paper I was presenting, it worked well in that it was simple, albeit boring. It could have benefited from more animations, quicker transitions, and more relevant pictures. I think our presentations for Research are extremely different from the Seminar ones. My research paper has so many different sections to go through and so many more technical terms to explain. Research presentations warrant more slides to explain everything and more animations to keep interest for the long presentation. While Seminar was more of a presenting of past work, Research is presenting our own work. In this way, I think there is more pressure to show that you are credible and what you conducted is valuable as a Research presenter. Seminar was more of a consolidation of previous thought, and relying on others credibility to support your point, so I think it was less individual-focused, and thus the slides were more vague and more outside sources. Our Research presentations depends on our passion for the subject and our expertise to showcase all our work for an entire year, a greatly different experience than Seminar.
I got to greatly improve my slides this week to fit more of that Research purpose. With Mrs. Haag helping me incorporate the beauty of animations, I feel like the inclusion of my tables and graphs for the results section is more purposeful. I added visual cues to more directly forge that link between audience and PowerPoint, facilitating interaction with those listening. I added more slides, instead of having a large portion of my script remain on one image/text box. I think what I could improve on, the more I practice, is adding more slides and determining if my slides are enough to keep capturing interest. But overall, I am happy with how they look and think their minimalistic nature and contrasts really will help the audience visualize my research.
In terms of practicing the actual presentation, I will be trying to fit in multiple practice runs a day, probably like 4 or 5. With this being my primary focus right now, I need to dedicate time to it every day. I will be practicing after I get home from work and will practice more the days I am free. I will probably get my parents to watch and friends doing SRP/Lucia when we hang out. I think rehearsing will be easier than Seminar last year, I feel like I know my topic like the back of my hand after spending a year working on it and a lot of school-less days entirely dedicated to it. I think rather than knowing the information, I need to more practice making eye contact with the audience and making sure I am changing slides/animations on time. With this week dedicated to practice, I am sure I will be more than ready for the practice presentations!
Word Count: 600
Looking back on my Seminar presentation last year, I basically didn't do any of what I listed above, or did it pretty badly. I think for the type of paper I was presenting, it worked well in that it was simple, albeit boring. It could have benefited from more animations, quicker transitions, and more relevant pictures. I think our presentations for Research are extremely different from the Seminar ones. My research paper has so many different sections to go through and so many more technical terms to explain. Research presentations warrant more slides to explain everything and more animations to keep interest for the long presentation. While Seminar was more of a presenting of past work, Research is presenting our own work. In this way, I think there is more pressure to show that you are credible and what you conducted is valuable as a Research presenter. Seminar was more of a consolidation of previous thought, and relying on others credibility to support your point, so I think it was less individual-focused, and thus the slides were more vague and more outside sources. Our Research presentations depends on our passion for the subject and our expertise to showcase all our work for an entire year, a greatly different experience than Seminar.
I got to greatly improve my slides this week to fit more of that Research purpose. With Mrs. Haag helping me incorporate the beauty of animations, I feel like the inclusion of my tables and graphs for the results section is more purposeful. I added visual cues to more directly forge that link between audience and PowerPoint, facilitating interaction with those listening. I added more slides, instead of having a large portion of my script remain on one image/text box. I think what I could improve on, the more I practice, is adding more slides and determining if my slides are enough to keep capturing interest. But overall, I am happy with how they look and think their minimalistic nature and contrasts really will help the audience visualize my research.
In terms of practicing the actual presentation, I will be trying to fit in multiple practice runs a day, probably like 4 or 5. With this being my primary focus right now, I need to dedicate time to it every day. I will be practicing after I get home from work and will practice more the days I am free. I will probably get my parents to watch and friends doing SRP/Lucia when we hang out. I think rehearsing will be easier than Seminar last year, I feel like I know my topic like the back of my hand after spending a year working on it and a lot of school-less days entirely dedicated to it. I think rather than knowing the information, I need to more practice making eye contact with the audience and making sure I am changing slides/animations on time. With this week dedicated to practice, I am sure I will be more than ready for the practice presentations!
Word Count: 600
Sunskruthi -- I'm glad that you've seen the light at the end of the tunnel that is the "beauty of animations." Moreover, I think you're absolutely right, that there's a bit more pressure in this presentation because it's a representation of YOUR work, not the work of others. Thus, you want to represent all that you've done well. I had fun working on slides with you, and I'm confident that you'll be able to make it happen. Try, however, not to rush through the content by talking fast and try to make lots of eye contact with emphatic gestures.
ReplyDeleteHey Sunskruthi! I'm really happy that you've reflected back on your seminar presentation last year and you're using what you thought went badly to guide you as you practice this one. I totally agree that a powerpoint should add to the presentation instead of detracting from the speaker, but I'm not necessarily sure that it means it should be fast-paced - make sure you're not rushing through anything, especially since there's the added pressure of us trying to prove our credibility.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good luck and I'm sure you'll do great (as always)!
Sunskruthi!
ReplyDeletePlease don't do any "practice ruins" for your presentation, that will just hurt you. Instead, I suggest you do more practice runs for your presentation, that will help a lot more.
Mrs. Haag also opened my eyes to the delights of animations, so I can totally see where you are coming from. DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN MAKE TWO THINGS APPEAR AND DISAPPEAR AT THE SAME TIME? I know, right? Mind blown.
Anyways, you are totally right when you say that a powerpoint should add not detract or distract. Like you said, adding simple things such as animated arrows and circles to complex things such as giant results tables can change the whole game and beauty of a presentation. And if you keep practicing, I know that you will have a great presentation come next Friday! Good luck!
plz spare me- *practice runs
DeleteSunskruthi!!!
ReplyDeletePresentations are the best part, aren’t they?! I definitely agree with you that an ideal PowerPoint doesn’t take away the focus from the presenter and is also engaging. I really think that transitions do a good job with that, if you can show the clear connection between points, and transitioning between slides, and within slides, if you have multiple points on a slide. Research is definitely longer than seminar, and the presentations should have more words, I agree with you! It’s good that you are happy with your slides, and that they are more minimalistic. Good job!!! Practicing the actual presentations is going to be really hard and long and you’re going to want to give up and just wing it or procrastinate (or maybe that’s just me) but don’t do that! You’re almost done with the ENTIRE THING! This part isn’t even the hardest part because you’re just summarizing what you’ve already done and presenting it. So finish strong! I believe in you! Make a strong presentation and memorize the script really well and give a strong presentation! Good luck, I believe in you!!!! (186)