a) What are the most valuable things you learned about the process of preparing and delivering presentations? (2 or more)
There are two things that I think is the most valuable in the process of preparing. One is that rehearsals are essential in preparing a presentation. I learned that in order to speak with confidence, I must understand my topic and that the memorizing the script would help a lot. Second is how to makes the slides for a presentation. Thanks to the handout Mark gave us (from "Presentation Zen"), I learned how to make the slides simple, how to organize them, and what kind of visuals are recommended to use. Moreover, there are mainly two things that I think is the most valuable in the process of delivering. One is to know what you are saying while presenting. Although I might be memorizing the script, if I did not understand the content, I could not talk with confidence nor make it persuasive. Therefore, I learned that knowing your topic/theme is one of the most important thing in delivering presentations. Second, is the body language. I learned that eye contact (looking at the audience, not just peeking) makes the presentation persuasive and it shows that you are confident. I also learned that all body language (such as eye contact, postures, gestures, and use of voice) connects to the impression the audience get.
b) In what presentation skill areas do you feel you have made progress or improved your awareness? (2 or more)
I think that I have made progress in especially 3 areas of presentation skills. First is the process of making the presentation. I think I got so much better in making the slides, choosing effective visuals and simplifying the content. As I said before, the handout from the "Presentation Zen" helped me a lot to improve. Second, is giving conclusion. At first, I did not know how to wrap up a presentation, but after I learned how to preview and give emphasis, I could follow that step and I got better in giving (or making) conclusion. Third is the body language. In the beginning, I tended to cross my leg a lot and moved a lot due to the nervousness. However, after analyzing my weakness in body language by watching the video, I focused on not giving unnecessary movements and tried to give a good posture. After giving 3 presentations, I got better in the body language.
c) What points do you want to improve further in your future presentations? How can you improve those? (2 or more)
There are mainly 3 points that I want to improve further in my future presentations. One is the preparation skills, such as memorizing the script more and doing more rehearsals. To improve this, I must put more time for preparation and make time to memorize the script. However, not only memorizing but also understanding the concept is important so I would like to think about the content and theme more. Second, is getting used to academic presentations. By giving first 2 presentations, which were about topics that I liked (non-academic), helped me to get used to give presentations in front of people. However, after I gave the last presentation, which was academic, I noticed that academic presentation and non-academic presentation was very different. Therefore, I thought I needed to get used to give academic presentation. In order to achieve this, I think I just have to do more academic presentations or choosing academic topic for presentations when I have the chance to. Third, is the posture. My mother (who was watching the video of my presentation at home with me) told me that I am a little stoop-shouldered. Therefore, I want to stand in a right posture with my back up straight. To achieve this, I think I must be careful about my posture in the everyday life and be careful of it.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Presentation#3
*Unite for children, unite against AIDS*
Reflection (as a group)
a) The process of preparation and rehearsal
I think we have spent enough time for preparation and rehearsal (twice). But if we could do more, the better it became, I think.
b) The effectiveness of the introduction
Kohei started the introduction with an interesting question, asking about our teen times, making it attention grabbing by connecting such question to serious issue of AIDS. I think he did a great job thinking about it.
c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body
Overall, I think that it was persuasive and well organized. However, it was better if it covered more specified issues, such as question that Mark asked in the end.
d) The conclusion and Q&A
I tried to make the conclusion sound very serious, appealing how desperately we are in need of the donation. Q&A: for the first question, I think our answer was a little vague but I think it was okay since the question was a little technical question about AIDS itself. For the second question, I thought that we should have searched the detailed number, but I think Kaya did her best to answer it. I searched the number after the presentation but it did not say in the UNICEF homepage, so it was "sikata-ga-nai" but we should have done it before.
e) Use of visuals
I think we used the visuals effectively, using not only the pictures but also a video.
f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture
I think we could have done more eye contact, since we sometimes had to read the script. But it was not that bad. Facial expression was appropriate: serious and calm. I think that there were little gestures since we were holding script. However, when we put our script down we did some which was good. The posture was good, too.
g) Use of voice
All three of us talked in appropriate volume and I think it was all clear.
h) Other points (as you like)
As Mark has pointed after our presentation, maybe Kaya and I were talking faster than Kohei.
Reflection (of myself)
a) The process of preparation and rehearsal
I think I spent enough time for preparation (about a week) and the rehearsal as a group was adequate (twice). However, since I do many rehearsals by myself, I wanted to rehearse more by myself. I only did twice before doing a rehearsal as a group, and I think that I should have memorized the numbers more.
b) The effectiveness of the introduction
Kohei started the introduction with an interesting question, asking about our teen times, making it attention grabbing by connecting such question to serious issue of AIDS. I think he did a great job thinking about it.
c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body
I think that it was persuasive and well organized. Maybe if I talked more about the companies that gave UNICEF "A rating", it could have been more persuasive.
d) The conclusion and Q&A
I tried to make the conclusion sound very serious, appealing how desperately we are in need of the donation. I got stuck in the middle part where I said "more children are alive, more children are healthy and more children have the chance to grow up" so that was one regretful thing.
Q&A: for the first question, I think our answer was a little vague but I think it was okay since the question was a little technical question about AIDS itself. For the second question, I thought that we should have searched the detailed number, but I think Kaya did her best to answer it. I searched the number after the presentation but it did not say in the UNICEF homepage, so it was "sikata-ga-nai" but we should have done it before.
e) Use of visuals
After the interchanges with JLP students, I had an advice that I should put more pictures of people suffering from AIDS although it is hard to look at them, to help persuade and appeal the seriousness of AIDS. Therefore, I added more visuals of patients. I have also made graphs by Excel to make data easier to understand.
f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture
Eye contact: At first, the eye contact was very inconsistent since I was reading script to read numbers and definitions of words. In the middle, I was looking more at the audience and in the conclusion, I was fully looking at the audience.
Facial expression: I think the facial expression was appropriate: serious and calm.
Gestures: At first, there weren't much gestures since I was holding a script, but in the middle, there started to be more but I tried to make them simple and not too much since this presentation is about a serious issue.
Posture: I think that I did not move so much compared to other 2 presentations I have done.
g) Use of voice
I think it was good, not too small nor too loud.
h) Other points (as you like)
I think I should of talked a little slower and memorized the numbers, definitions of words, and detailed information about results. But overall, I think we achieved our goal of trying to make it persuasive, organized and to tell the audience how serious issue AIDS is.
Reflection (as a group)
a) The process of preparation and rehearsal
I think we have spent enough time for preparation and rehearsal (twice). But if we could do more, the better it became, I think.
b) The effectiveness of the introduction
Kohei started the introduction with an interesting question, asking about our teen times, making it attention grabbing by connecting such question to serious issue of AIDS. I think he did a great job thinking about it.
c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body
Overall, I think that it was persuasive and well organized. However, it was better if it covered more specified issues, such as question that Mark asked in the end.
d) The conclusion and Q&A
I tried to make the conclusion sound very serious, appealing how desperately we are in need of the donation. Q&A: for the first question, I think our answer was a little vague but I think it was okay since the question was a little technical question about AIDS itself. For the second question, I thought that we should have searched the detailed number, but I think Kaya did her best to answer it. I searched the number after the presentation but it did not say in the UNICEF homepage, so it was "sikata-ga-nai" but we should have done it before.
e) Use of visuals
I think we used the visuals effectively, using not only the pictures but also a video.
f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture
I think we could have done more eye contact, since we sometimes had to read the script. But it was not that bad. Facial expression was appropriate: serious and calm. I think that there were little gestures since we were holding script. However, when we put our script down we did some which was good. The posture was good, too.
g) Use of voice
All three of us talked in appropriate volume and I think it was all clear.
h) Other points (as you like)
As Mark has pointed after our presentation, maybe Kaya and I were talking faster than Kohei.
Reflection (of myself)
a) The process of preparation and rehearsal
I think I spent enough time for preparation (about a week) and the rehearsal as a group was adequate (twice). However, since I do many rehearsals by myself, I wanted to rehearse more by myself. I only did twice before doing a rehearsal as a group, and I think that I should have memorized the numbers more.
b) The effectiveness of the introduction
Kohei started the introduction with an interesting question, asking about our teen times, making it attention grabbing by connecting such question to serious issue of AIDS. I think he did a great job thinking about it.
c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body
I think that it was persuasive and well organized. Maybe if I talked more about the companies that gave UNICEF "A rating", it could have been more persuasive.
d) The conclusion and Q&A
I tried to make the conclusion sound very serious, appealing how desperately we are in need of the donation. I got stuck in the middle part where I said "more children are alive, more children are healthy and more children have the chance to grow up" so that was one regretful thing.
Q&A: for the first question, I think our answer was a little vague but I think it was okay since the question was a little technical question about AIDS itself. For the second question, I thought that we should have searched the detailed number, but I think Kaya did her best to answer it. I searched the number after the presentation but it did not say in the UNICEF homepage, so it was "sikata-ga-nai" but we should have done it before.
e) Use of visuals
After the interchanges with JLP students, I had an advice that I should put more pictures of people suffering from AIDS although it is hard to look at them, to help persuade and appeal the seriousness of AIDS. Therefore, I added more visuals of patients. I have also made graphs by Excel to make data easier to understand.
f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture
Eye contact: At first, the eye contact was very inconsistent since I was reading script to read numbers and definitions of words. In the middle, I was looking more at the audience and in the conclusion, I was fully looking at the audience.
Facial expression: I think the facial expression was appropriate: serious and calm.
Gestures: At first, there weren't much gestures since I was holding a script, but in the middle, there started to be more but I tried to make them simple and not too much since this presentation is about a serious issue.
Posture: I think that I did not move so much compared to other 2 presentations I have done.
g) Use of voice
I think it was good, not too small nor too loud.
h) Other points (as you like)
I think I should of talked a little slower and memorized the numbers, definitions of words, and detailed information about results. But overall, I think we achieved our goal of trying to make it persuasive, organized and to tell the audience how serious issue AIDS is.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Presentation#2
*How to bake Christmas Cookies*
Reflective Comments:
There are mainly 2 points that I would like to reflect on.
The first point is the content of the presentation. I think that I chose a big topic, demonstrating the orders of baking cookies was maybe too big topic for a 5minutes presentation. Therefore, I had to speak fast in order to finish the presentation on time, and some people gave me comments about the speed of the talk, too. I did my best to simplify it, but it was not that detailed.
The second point is that I forgot to preview all the five points of baking (which I regret a lot ); ). I did not forget to preview the points when I was doing rehearsal, so maybe I should of rehearsed more, or maybe I should look at the notes more since I basically present without looking at the notes.
Goals for Future Presentations:
1. Simplify the topic more. Analyze the topic and just take the most important parts of the content, and emphasize (if necessary).
2. Be careful of how fast or slow I talk. Using the speed of the talk effectively. (For example, slowing down the speed in emphasize, or when trying to make the audience think, etc.) Not too fast. If the content is long, make it simple so that I can talk slow.
3. Rehearse more until I feel confident and get the smoothness of the flow. And of curse managing the time.
4. Never forget to preview the points I presented!!
Reflective Comments:
There are mainly 2 points that I would like to reflect on.
The first point is the content of the presentation. I think that I chose a big topic, demonstrating the orders of baking cookies was maybe too big topic for a 5minutes presentation. Therefore, I had to speak fast in order to finish the presentation on time, and some people gave me comments about the speed of the talk, too. I did my best to simplify it, but it was not that detailed.
The second point is that I forgot to preview all the five points of baking (which I regret a lot ); ). I did not forget to preview the points when I was doing rehearsal, so maybe I should of rehearsed more, or maybe I should look at the notes more since I basically present without looking at the notes.
Goals for Future Presentations:
1. Simplify the topic more. Analyze the topic and just take the most important parts of the content, and emphasize (if necessary).
2. Be careful of how fast or slow I talk. Using the speed of the talk effectively. (For example, slowing down the speed in emphasize, or when trying to make the audience think, etc.) Not too fast. If the content is long, make it simple so that I can talk slow.
3. Rehearse more until I feel confident and get the smoothness of the flow. And of curse managing the time.
4. Never forget to preview the points I presented!!
Thursday, January 21, 2010
My goals for presentation#2
1. Preparation/Rehearsal
As I've done last time, I would prepare the presentation ahead of time, making some little outline and notes of what I'm going to talk about. Then, I'd time myself and do rehearsals until I feel comfortable and know exactly what I'm going to explain.
2. Content / Overall Impression
Explain the recipe of Christmas cookies and show how the recipe can be used in everyday life. (Seasons don't matter!) I hope I can explain it in a simple and easy way.
3. Voice
Clear and cheerful voice. I want to show that baking (or cooking) is very fun and hopefully I can make some of my audience to actually make them after my demo presentation.
4. Body Language
I'm thinking of actually doing the movements of making the cookies, such as mixing the ingredients or putting flour through a sieve, etc. But I would like to not to make more movements than necessary.
5. Visuals
I'm going to use pictures of the ingredients, the process amd my actual pictures of the Christmas cookies I baked last winter at the end.
As I've done last time, I would prepare the presentation ahead of time, making some little outline and notes of what I'm going to talk about. Then, I'd time myself and do rehearsals until I feel comfortable and know exactly what I'm going to explain.
2. Content / Overall Impression
Explain the recipe of Christmas cookies and show how the recipe can be used in everyday life. (Seasons don't matter!) I hope I can explain it in a simple and easy way.
3. Voice
Clear and cheerful voice. I want to show that baking (or cooking) is very fun and hopefully I can make some of my audience to actually make them after my demo presentation.
4. Body Language
I'm thinking of actually doing the movements of making the cookies, such as mixing the ingredients or putting flour through a sieve, etc. But I would like to not to make more movements than necessary.
5. Visuals
I'm going to use pictures of the ingredients, the process amd my actual pictures of the Christmas cookies I baked last winter at the end.
Monday, January 18, 2010
PAL goals for presentation#2
Purpose:
I want to demonstrate how to bake Christmas cookies to the audience. I want to make it easy to understand and to follow, and simple as possible so that the audience can remember the tips and can actually make them at home. It is very easy to make and they can be actually made at any time of the year although I call them Christmas cookies. (:
(Target) Audience:
My audience could be little kids to even elderly people. Especially for girls and for family but it can be anyone.
Logistics (Time, technology, etc):
My presentation would be about 5 minutes long and I am going to use the actual pictures that I took when I actually made them. I might use animations if I can find good ones but I'm not sure.
I want to demonstrate how to bake Christmas cookies to the audience. I want to make it easy to understand and to follow, and simple as possible so that the audience can remember the tips and can actually make them at home. It is very easy to make and they can be actually made at any time of the year although I call them Christmas cookies. (:
(Target) Audience:
My audience could be little kids to even elderly people. Especially for girls and for family but it can be anyone.
Logistics (Time, technology, etc):
My presentation would be about 5 minutes long and I am going to use the actual pictures that I took when I actually made them. I might use animations if I can find good ones but I'm not sure.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Introduction ACTP Analysis
Attention-Getter: Good
Kiran Bir Sethi started the speech with the word "contagious" and gave other connected keywords such as "laughter", "passion", and "inspiration", which gave a positive impression. Then she started to throw questions to the audience, which was successful in making them think about the question for while.
Credibility: Not included.
Topic: It was not very clear. However, she actually says that she'll introduce her story for the next 8 minutes, so it is clear that she's going to share her story which I assume is connected to the word "contagious". But I think she could of made it more clear.
Preview of Points: She does not give preview of points. In addition, she did not even give the clear points. The audience is left with no idea of what she is going to talk about, only the fact that it would somehow be connected with the word "contagious".
Monday, January 11, 2010
Presentation#1 Reflections and Self-Analysis
1. Successfully achieved purpose / main message?
Reflection:
My goal was to convey my passion about how much I loved to interact with people and how I found out about it through my thinking towards dance. My main message was that "little tiny moments you share with people constitutes everyday life, so we should make it happy and pleasant as possible, by giving smiles (for example)." I think that I achieved this goal, but I wanted to emphasis more about the main message, not only mentioning about it in the end.
Ideas for Improvement:
I think that I should of talked more about my main message at the end since I still had some time left.
2. Use of voice? (rhythm, emphasis, pausing, variation)
Reflection:
My goal was to speak in not so slow, nor too fast but appropriate speed and to speak in a passionate tone when emphasizing. I think that I was speaking in a normal speed, but I wanted to be more passionate when emphasizing my main message at the end since I couldn't say the last sentence fluently. By watching the video, I realized that I was a little hyper at first, so I want to become more calm.
Ideas for Improvement:
I want to speak with more passion and emphasis so I need to simulate the presentation by first, imagining about it and then, by rehearsing it actually. I thought that I needed to have more clear ideal image of how I wanted to make my presentation look like. And for the emphasis part, maybe I should memorize the last lines (the main message) so that I could speak in more fluent way without getting stuck. In addition, I thought that maybe I should speak louder because when I watch the video of my presentation, I always have to put the volume in max to hear my voice.
3. Use of body language? (posture, gestures, eyes, face)
Reflection:
My goal was to stay calm and to give appropriate gestures. I noticed that I crossed my legs when standing to make myself relax but I thought that I might look too relaxed so I would like to avoid that.
I was nervous at first, but as I started my presentation, I think I started to feel comfortable presenting and became a little calm. I think I gave appropriate gestures, too.
Ideas for Improvement:
For my next presentations, I would avoid crossing my legs and be careful of my standing posture. Kaya also recommended me to have a little more gesture at the end, so I would like to think about gestures before presenting since I didn't do that this time and the gestures were all natural.
4. Use of visuals?
Reflection:
My goal was to use many images and also images that are using the slide fully, and I think that I achieved that goal. However, the title of my presentation "My Passion" could of have been better. But I think that I was able to give some visual impact by using actual pictures of me dancing since many people said that they liked the real pictures I used.
Ideas for Improvement:
Since I had more slides than the other presentations my friends gave, I should reduce the slides of the presentation.
5. Preparation & rehearsal process?
Reflection:
I think that the rehearsal I've done was very effective in memorizing the context. However,I should have thought about gestures or standing posture, too.
Ideas for Improvement:
For the next presentation, I would like to simulate the presentation and rehearse with gestures, caring about standing posture, volume of the voice, etc. and be prepared 100% fully. I thought that I should rehearse as if I am giving the real presentation.
Reflection:
My goal was to convey my passion about how much I loved to interact with people and how I found out about it through my thinking towards dance. My main message was that "little tiny moments you share with people constitutes everyday life, so we should make it happy and pleasant as possible, by giving smiles (for example)." I think that I achieved this goal, but I wanted to emphasis more about the main message, not only mentioning about it in the end.
Ideas for Improvement:
I think that I should of talked more about my main message at the end since I still had some time left.
2. Use of voice? (rhythm, emphasis, pausing, variation)
Reflection:
My goal was to speak in not so slow, nor too fast but appropriate speed and to speak in a passionate tone when emphasizing. I think that I was speaking in a normal speed, but I wanted to be more passionate when emphasizing my main message at the end since I couldn't say the last sentence fluently. By watching the video, I realized that I was a little hyper at first, so I want to become more calm.
Ideas for Improvement:
I want to speak with more passion and emphasis so I need to simulate the presentation by first, imagining about it and then, by rehearsing it actually. I thought that I needed to have more clear ideal image of how I wanted to make my presentation look like. And for the emphasis part, maybe I should memorize the last lines (the main message) so that I could speak in more fluent way without getting stuck. In addition, I thought that maybe I should speak louder because when I watch the video of my presentation, I always have to put the volume in max to hear my voice.
3. Use of body language? (posture, gestures, eyes, face)
Reflection:
My goal was to stay calm and to give appropriate gestures. I noticed that I crossed my legs when standing to make myself relax but I thought that I might look too relaxed so I would like to avoid that.
I was nervous at first, but as I started my presentation, I think I started to feel comfortable presenting and became a little calm. I think I gave appropriate gestures, too.
Ideas for Improvement:
For my next presentations, I would avoid crossing my legs and be careful of my standing posture. Kaya also recommended me to have a little more gesture at the end, so I would like to think about gestures before presenting since I didn't do that this time and the gestures were all natural.
4. Use of visuals?
Reflection:
My goal was to use many images and also images that are using the slide fully, and I think that I achieved that goal. However, the title of my presentation "My Passion" could of have been better. But I think that I was able to give some visual impact by using actual pictures of me dancing since many people said that they liked the real pictures I used.
Ideas for Improvement:
Since I had more slides than the other presentations my friends gave, I should reduce the slides of the presentation.
5. Preparation & rehearsal process?
Reflection:
I think that the rehearsal I've done was very effective in memorizing the context. However,I should have thought about gestures or standing posture, too.
Ideas for Improvement:
For the next presentation, I would like to simulate the presentation and rehearse with gestures, caring about standing posture, volume of the voice, etc. and be prepared 100% fully. I thought that I should rehearse as if I am giving the real presentation.
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