This week I celebrated my birthday, the end of another school year and the graduation of one of my cousins from high school. In the midst of all these significant moments what stood out the most to me is how much I am enjoying the simpler moments in my life. What was evident when I stopped to reflect on every special day of this week, was the empty spaces.
The celebration of my birthday, as joyous as it was had an empty space...one of my uncles who passed away last year was missing. On the last day of school several of my colleagues were missing because they have been laid off beacuse of budget cuts. The garduation of my cousin left an empty space where the little girl I used have tea parties for had disappeared and has now become a young woman.
Even with all of these empty spaces I would not change or add anything to fill them back up, because things happen as they should and when they should. Such is the cycle of life, a lesson one could miss about the simpler side of life. How will these reflection affect my practices in the classroom?
Hara Hachi bu, quite simply. As years go by, I have gained an appreciation for keeping thing simple including my presentation style. I am going to present information differently...and reach more people because of that.
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Saturday, June 26, 2010
Digital Story Telling...Week 4
As I continue through this class, I enjoy learning more everyweek as my classmates and I are introduced to new tools and valuable books, learning material. What I am enjoying most is that we are being provided with opportunities to create and share projects that we can use in our classrooms to enhance our student instruction. Learning about ideaology that can change the way we teach and learn, but more importantly change the way our students learn and share knowledge. I have been very pleased with text selections for this course, Presentation Zen and Digitales, because they are timely and forthright in their explanation of information.
What has really helped me this week is a culmantion of the first three combined thusfar, seeing the preparation for a presentation as mission of organization. I have become open the idea that a great presentation does not have to be set in the traditional design format, but requires as much work if not more than the traditional design format 1-7-7. As someone who majored in Mass Media Communications in undergraduate, the rule for preparing a slide show was almost like the Gospel. If you did not have "detailed" slides, you had not prepared properly and it reflected poorly on you as a presenter.
The truth is that now is the time when we need to think differently about what makes a powerful statement when we are engaging an audience. We need to through out the "rule" book for a broken system and days of bullet points and tons of text we used to attempt to create a stunning effect and look for ways to affect our audience instead.
This week, as with every week, I ask myself what did I learn and how is it going to change the manner in which I carry out tasks in my classroom and other areas of my life? Quite simply, when it comes to presentations I am going to use what I learned about simplifying what I put on a slide and what I choose to include in a presentation. A simplified presentation with a powerful message that can be heard without visual noise as a distraction is my goal.
What has really helped me this week is a culmantion of the first three combined thusfar, seeing the preparation for a presentation as mission of organization. I have become open the idea that a great presentation does not have to be set in the traditional design format, but requires as much work if not more than the traditional design format 1-7-7. As someone who majored in Mass Media Communications in undergraduate, the rule for preparing a slide show was almost like the Gospel. If you did not have "detailed" slides, you had not prepared properly and it reflected poorly on you as a presenter.
The truth is that now is the time when we need to think differently about what makes a powerful statement when we are engaging an audience. We need to through out the "rule" book for a broken system and days of bullet points and tons of text we used to attempt to create a stunning effect and look for ways to affect our audience instead.
This week, as with every week, I ask myself what did I learn and how is it going to change the manner in which I carry out tasks in my classroom and other areas of my life? Quite simply, when it comes to presentations I am going to use what I learned about simplifying what I put on a slide and what I choose to include in a presentation. A simplified presentation with a powerful message that can be heard without visual noise as a distraction is my goal.
Digital Story Telling...My Thoughts about Week Three
Wow I used to think that a spectacular presentation was one with plenty of bells and whistles. I have a different perspective after reading Presentation Zen. The concept of simpler being better, less being more and leaving my audience with the ability to "hear" a message without any background noise are radical and revolutionary moves in this digital age. Can I possibly be that rebellious as not to gorge my media presentations with bullet points, text, graphics images and a song and pony show? Would my audience be smart enough to understand my message without all of that stuff?
Of course they will. The bigger question for me is how did they ever hear my messages before when I was filling slides with bullets points followed by somersaulting words, flying pictures and bouncing clip art. Thank God for continually learning new and better ways of doing things. Simpler is better and less is more, this concept will leave my audience room for desert, even a second helping if they want one.
Of course they will. The bigger question for me is how did they ever hear my messages before when I was filling slides with bullets points followed by somersaulting words, flying pictures and bouncing clip art. Thank God for continually learning new and better ways of doing things. Simpler is better and less is more, this concept will leave my audience room for desert, even a second helping if they want one.
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