Planning and Recording Your Presentation

Introduction

In the previous activity you were introduced to Petcha Kutchas and Ignite Phoenix presentations.  Similar to Petcha Kutchas and Ignite Phoenix presentations, you will need to create a presentation with 20 slides that contain mostly visuals with little to no text. You will also need to correctly cite all of the images you use. However, your presentation doesn't have to follow the exact timing rules as Petcha Kutcha and Ignite Phoenix presentations.  Your presentation just needs to be between 5-7 minutes. The following directions will walk you through the process. 

Thinking

You've read and viewed a lot of resources during this course.  Thankfully you have been keeping notes in Mendeley, on your blog, and on your Popplet mind map.  You could probably talk about K-12 online learning 'till the cows come home.  However, you only have 5-7 minutes. The trick is to select the most important information.  Think about your audience, what they already know about K-12 online learning, and what information would be helpful to them. In your case you will be presenting to a few different groups.  

  • First, the school board is mostly interested in online learning as a way of saving the district money,  but the board hasn't really thought past the fiscal issues.  They will want to know more about the definition and trends of online learning. 
  • Second, you will be presenting to teachers who may have the misconception that teaching online is easier than teaching face-to-face.  They will want to know what online teachers actually do and what their primary responsibilities are. Some teachers are also considering a move to teaching online and will want to know the benefits and drawbacks of teaching online. 
  • Your last stakeholders are parents and students.  Parents may be too cautious or too eager to have their student take an online class.  They will need to know what skills their students need to be successful. Students may also have a misconception that online classes will be easier than face-to-face classes and will need to know the benefits and challenges of learning online.  

Designing 

Now that you've thought about your audience and their needs, it's time to design your presentation. You can create your presentation slides using PowerPoint or Google Presentation.  Before you think about the visuals, you need to outline the topics that you want to talk about.  I recommend outlining your presentation first on a sheet of paper.  In your outline you should explicitly state the specific topics that you will address and decide how many slides you will use to address each topic.  

Once you've decided the topics that you will discuss in your 20 slides, it's time to start fleshing out what you will say in your presentation.  This should be done in your speaker notes that are located below the slide.  You don't need to write out every word that you are going to say but you should write out key statements with citations.  For this project you can just include the authors' names in parentheses at the end of the statements. 

It's also important that when you are giving your presentation the audience knows that this information is not just something that you made up.  As a result you will want you to be specific and refer to specific resources. The audience probably doesn't care about the names of the researchers so instead of saying "Hawkins, Graham, and Barbour interviewed teachers at the Electronic High School of Utah and found..." you could say "Researchers interviewed teachers at the Electronic High School of Utah and found..." or even "Interviewed teachers at the Electronic High School of Utah felt..."  You can also highlight specific videos in a similar way.  You don't need to say "In a YouTube video created by Sutherland Institute, DeLaina Tonks, the director of the Open High School of Utah--a full-time online charter school--explained ..." Instead you can just say something like "DeLaina Tonks, who is the director of a full-time charter school in Utah, explained ..."  It's also important to remember that audience doesn't need you to tell them where you are getting every bit of information but you should do it enough and throughout the presentation so that they know you've done your research. 

Remember that your slides don't have to advance automatically like they do in Petcha Kutcha or Ignite Phoenix presentations.  However, if you are interested in creating a true Petcha Kutcha or Ignite Phoenix presentation I've created some PowerPoint templates that you are free to use. 

Images and Citations (The 21st Slide)

Only after you have added your statements to the speaker notes with citations should you start looking for images to include in your presentation.  Under Fair Use guidelines you are free to use images that you find online so long as you cite them correctly.  As a result, it's important that you cite any image that you use in your presentation, especially since we are uploading it to the Internet (I learned this the hard way but that's a story for another time). I typically add my citations on one or more slides at the end of the presentation (the citations wouldn't count toward your 20 slides).

The good news is that it's really easy to cite images.  You just need the following:

  • The photographer's name if available (I find that this is typically not provided)
  • A description of the image
  • The image's URL

A full citation would look something similar to this:

Image of brown dog by John Smith located at http://fortheloveofthedogblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/cold_dog.jpg

The hardest part is getting the correct URL.  The following video shows you how to obtain the correct URL that you will be expected to use in your presentation. 

 

Practicing 

Once you have designed your presentation it's time to practice.  You should not read your presentation.  Having someone read their presentation is boring face-to-face and online.  It's better to have short notes that you can use as prompts to remind you of what you want to talk about.  You should also speak naturally and be okay with the "Uh" and "Umm"s (mistakes actually make you sound less robotic).  I recommend that you stand up, smile, and use hand motions when you present just like you would in a face-to-face environment.  Although those things go unseen they make you sound natural. 

Recording and Saving

As explained earlier you will be using a screencasting tool to record your presentation and audio narration.  All you need to do is start recording your full screen, start your presentation, give the presentation like you rehearsed, and then stop and save the recording.

There are lots of free tools that you can use.  The following are three tools that are the most user-friendly.  I've also linked to tutorials to help you get started. Feel free to use another tool if you already have one you like. 

  • [Recommended] Screencast-o-matic is the program that we recommend because it works on a Mac or PC and doesn't require a download. However, it requires a Java plugin that doesn't always run--especially on Macs. Thankfully you can download the program and run it off of your computer.  This tutorial will intorduce you to the tool.  
  • QuickTime only works on a Mac.  If fact, if you own a MAC it's most likely already on your computer.  These tutorials will show you how you to create a screencast with QuickTime. When you are finished with the recording you should upload the video to YouTube or another video hosting program if you prefer. 
  • Jing works on a Mac or PC and is really user-friendly but has a 5 min recording limit and requires a download. These tutorials will show you how to download and use Jing. When you are finished you should upload the recording to screencast.com. 

Final Checklist

When you are done you should be able to answer yes to each of these questions:

  • Does my presentation highlight some of the current trends in online learning?
  • Does my presentation accurately describe the roles and responsibilities of online teachers? 
  • Does my presentation highlight the benefits and potential drawbacks to online learning to teachers and students?
  • Does my presentation contain engaging images that are cited correctly? 
  • Do I speak in a natural and engaging way?
  • Is my video between 5-7 mins long?

Submitting

On the Google Site portfolio that you created at the start of the course, create a new page and name it "Screencast Presentation."  On your new page:

  1. Embed your screencast video onto the page.
  2. At the top of the page you should write 1-2 paragraph reflection on the course.  In the reflection you should clearly and effectively answer the questions: (1) What did you learn in the course?, (2) Why was the course content important?, and (3) How can/will you use this information in your future practice? 
  3. Directly above the video you should also include a description the project to visitors to your portfolio with a link to your Popplet Mind Map. 

When you are finished, submit your portfolio URL below.