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.
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