I have sat through countless presentations in which
the speaker used Microsoft Power Point throughout my military and professional
career. I had the same reaction every
time I would walk into a conference room and the presenter fired up the projector. As soon as the light from the projector hit
the screen, I knew Power Point was soon to follow. And with Power Point, I knew what to expect,
a lot of information presented in an extremely boring format. Presentations were typically read verbatim
from beginning to end with some cheesy clip art scattered throughout as an
attempt to somehow make things more interesting. However, this practice was not because people
did not care to present their material an interesting way. It was because Power Point became part of our
culture. It became accepted as a
necessary evil to present information to an audience. If it was time to give a presentation,
default to Power Point. And, I am just
as guilty as anyone else in using Power Point as a standard practice. However, that is until now.
I was recently instructed to give a presentation on
an action research project for one of my assignments. The assignment was to give a presentation,
but Power Point could not be used. I
think I broke into a cold sweat when I read that stipulation. My crutch was removed and I was officially
going to be removed from my comfort zone.
But that’s what higher learning is about sometimes right? Learning new things and breaking away from
what you are used to. I like technology
and media, so I saw this as an opportunity to learn something new and something
to be functionally applied for future use.
I found a new format called Prezi that allowed an entirely different
way to present material. I watched some
tutorials and jumped right in. Of course,
like most programs, the best way to learn is to just start and even make some
mistakes. I really enjoyed the Prezi presentation format. It was very user
friendly and the visuals were superb. I
plan on continuing to use Prezi for future presentations. Hopefully, this new format coupled with my enthusiasm
will keep my audience engaged with the information I am trying to communicate.
The first thing I did was review some of the resources
in our coursework. These resources were
valuable because they communicated what a good presentation consisted of and
some types of different media available.
I learned a lot about good presentation design from these
resources. I learned that presentations
are not all about the information; they are also about keeping the audience a
priority. An audience can be lost in
minutes if the presenter is not careful about delivery or how their
presentation is formatted. For example,
a presenter will be more successful if they can deliver their information in an
entertaining way. This will always beat
out the long, boring, dry, monotone delivery.
Some key aspects in a good presentation format are to keep slides clear,
consistent, and simple. Here are some
others:
· Simplicity
· Effective use of multimedia
· Include stories or examples for support
· Do not read slides word for word
· Avoid Microsoft templates and clip art
· Use high-quality graphics and/or photographs
· Be careful with slide transitions
· Use video and audio when appropriate
· Limit ideas to one main idea per slide
· Move away from podium to connect with audience
· Use a remote when possible
· Make good eye contact with individuals vs. the group
· Avoid talking too fast
· Keep the lights on
I
can only hope that the days of boring Power Point presentations are
numbered. I will happily be spreading the
word of the many alternatives such as Prezi to create better
presentations. Knowing these alternatives
is a game changer, but now I can no longer use Power Point as an excuse as to
why I may be losing my audience’s attention.
But that is fine with me, I gladly accept if I have to work on my
presenting skills vs. the presentation format.
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