One of the topics we discussed on Wednesday was what the different types of learners get out of visual aids. Here is a quote from this article on bad PowerPoint presentation:
Remember, people process information in many ways. Some learn visually, others learn by listening, and the kinesthetic types prefer to learn through movement. It’s best to provide something for everyone. Let’s be very clear. Visual learners do not learn from bullet points alone; they learn from pictures, graphs, and images. Auditory learners do not learn from listening to sound effects like bells ringing and typewriters clacking. Instead, they learn from listening to an engaging speaker whose voice is powerful and who captivates their curiosity. And, kinesthetic learners do not learn from the movement of words on a slide. They learn from doing, touching, and moving around. They like to be involved and participate.
It is unfortunate that PowerPoint is designed with all these “bells and whistles” that obstruct communication, because the tendency and desire for many communicators is to put as many of these animations and effects into a presentation as possible. They tend to distract from the message, and at times can put off an audience completely. What we tend to forget as speakers is that it is not a fancy PowerPoint presentation or a flashy visual aid that will engage our audience, but our own ability to communicate our message to them in a way that interests and involves our audience.
I think we had a really good workshop last night, and while half the class was missing, I think it gave the opportunity for some good one-on-one discussions on improving public speaking skills. Hopefully, you will be able to utilize some of the practice techniques on your own this week to help you build your confidence and start gaining the habits that you’re looking to acquire.
We talked so much last night about bad visual aids and bad PowerPoint presentations that I thought I would do a little research today about the subject. As I mentioned last night, I’m interested too, now that I know that I officially have been declared a “bad” PowerPoint user as well. Just doing a web search netted me about 9,000,000 links, so there is obviously some sort of trend out there that others have noticed.
There is a lot of helpful information on making presentations on Lenny Laskowski’s web site, including some topics that we’ll be discussing tomorrow night and in future workshops:
I was asked over the weekend by a student whether or not it was okay to use your own laptops for ADM 316. Here is the response I gave:
If you’re running XP and Office 2003, then yes, you may use your own. If you’re running Vista, it probably won’t be that big of a deal, but if you have Office 2007, that is definitely out. When we do the in-class lab time, it will be too difficult for those who are not as computer literate to differentiate between the two.
As far as the laptops go, everyone in class will probably still get one unless arrangements are made first with the university, and they will still be responsible for their care, regardless of whether they bring them to class or use them in class or not. In Indy, they are generally delivered on-site, but they are couriered to the online students, so I don’t know how you will receive yours. This is the first time I’ve taught this course off-site.
I have Office 2007 on my personal laptop, so when it comes to in-class lab time, I’m thinking about having one of the students running the overhead as a demonstration. When I teach this on-site, I generally check a laptop out of inventory.
For those of you visiting for the first time from the ADM 316 class in Lafayette, welcome! Our class will start on Thursday March 27, and I’m really looking forward to getting into this class.
First, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this or not, but the university should be providing laptops to each of you for the duration of this course. I’m not sure how they will be transporting them to you yet (since you’re all outside the main Indy/Marion metro area), but I know that’s something that students like to hear about. You will need to bring them to every class, as we will be using them during lab time. I’m not sure if your hotel site has wi-fi access, but I believe that the laptops you receive should have a wireless network connection.
You will find my syllabus and assignment list on the tabs at the top of this page. I’m not going to change the assignments due for Workshop 1, but I have made some changes to the course of which you will want to take note.
Since I cut the video short by a few minutes last night, I found the full version of “I Have a Dream” on YouTube.
I thought class went well last night. Everyone will get two speaking opportunities next week, so there will be ample time for all of you to be able to continue to practice your skills.
One of our topics tonight in class will be nonverbal communication, which is just as important as the words we speak and how we say them. There is an interesting story behind how I came to discover this article from Ritts and Stein, which I may be able to share with you in class. While this is mostly aimed at an audience of teachers, I think that the overall nonverbal behaviors would be of use to any public speaking situation.
Eye contact
Facial expressions
Gestures
Posture and body orientation
Proximity
I left paralinguistics and humor off the list, as they are largely verbal attributes in my opinion. So, really, our six ways to communicate are down to five (even though there were seven in the original list). I don’t know if they used “new math” to count them or what, but maybe that was some of that humor they were trying to impart.
I look forward to meeting everyone (finally) for our class tonight.
I found another good article from eHow.com on how to deal with public speaking anxiety. I know I’ve spoken to a couple of you on the subject already and that you thought you might have some issues in this area.
From my own personal experience, I feel that the very first step is probably the single greatest key to becoming more comfortable speaking in front of others: preparation. The more prepared I am to give a speech and the more I am familiar with the material I am presenting, the easier it is for me to focus, stay on track, and get back on track if mishaps occur with my notes, my technology, or my train of thought.
When you get the “deer in the headlights” look from people during a speech, it is most likely because they forgot something or something isn’t working properly, and that look is a look of panic because they think that they are suddenly on a trapeze without a net. The better you prepare for something to go wrong, the less likely that is to occur, and the more you end up having successful presentations, the more confident you will be.
I’m hoping that some of the things that I’ve been finding online are helpful to you now and might continue to be helpful to you even after our time together as a class is over.
Here’s a link to a paper from Dr. Morton Orman where he discusses the fear of public speaking. Fear of public speaking is often listed statistically as the #1 fear people have. I know that speaking in front of a cohort group that you get to know over the course of a couple of years is stressful enough, but complete strangers is a completely different thing. In fact, this past winter I was debating whether to enter a proposal to present at a conference Indiana Wesleyan hosted last month. I ended up not going through with it… partly because I wanted to observe this year and see how things were done and partly because I was nervous about speaking in front of my peers and educators that teach for a living.
However, in our classroom setting, I hope everyone realizes that being afraid to speak in front of others is not something unique, and that everyone is in the same boat. I think this summary of the article is very helpful, especially to someone who is perhaps trying to get over their own fears of public speaking and needs to diagnose the problem.
