Tom Peters on Presentations In May, Tom Peters gave his insights on what he calls "Presentation Excellence" on his website. Great, great, great stuff from a guy who knows a thing or two about speaking to a crowd. Tom also posted his tips — 56 in all — for Presentation Excellence. It's all great advice from someone who has a lot of experience speaking to groups big and small. (Download the Presentation Excellence PowerPoint document from Tom's site). My "Best 11" of Tom Peters' 56 Tips (Tom's words in bold) (1) Total commitment to the Problem/Project/Outcome Authenticity. (2) A compelling “Story line”/“Plot” There's that word "story" again. (3) Enough data to sink a tanker (98% in reserve). Research. (4) Data are imperative, but also play to Emotion. The brain has a logical left hemisphere an emotional right. Absolutely crucial. (6) No more than ONE point per slide! Simple visuals for the screen, always. Right. (8) SMILE! This is one important way to connect. Again, you want to make a powerful connection? (10) Energy!
Garr Reynolds/Presentations 1. Show your passion If I had only one tip to give, it would be to be passionate about your topic and let that enthusiasm come out. Yes, you need great content. Yes, you need professional, well designed visuals. 2. You’ve heard it before: First impressions are powerful. 3. Humans have short attention spans when it comes to passively sitting and listening to a speaker. 4. Get closer to your audience by moving away from or in front of the podium. 5. To advance your slides and builds, use a small, handheld remote. 6. If you press the “B” key while your PowerPoint or Keynote slide is showing, the screen will go blank. 7. Try looking at individuals rather than scanning the group. 8. If you are speaking in a meeting room or a classroom, the temptation is to turn the lights off so that the slides look better. 9. If you are presenting to a small group, then you can connect your computer to a large TV (via the s-video line-in). 10.
10 Excellent Alternatives to PowerPoint PowerPoint is absolutely one of the most popular presentation tool out there .I bet that the first presentation you have ever made was via PowerPoint, well at least that was the case with mine .There are, however, several other presentation tools that we can use as an alternative to PowerPoint and guess what ? they are way easier and simpler especially for use in education. I have handpicked some of such tools for you to check but you can also check this extensive list of some of the best presentation tools for teachers to explore more options. 1- Prezentit This is one of my favourite tools for creating presentations.It does not require any software download and all you need is a web browser. 2- Sliderocket Sliderocket is a great presentation tool that lets users easily create, collaborate and share stunning media-rich presentations. 3- SlideSix SlideSix is another great presenter application. 4- Vuvox You can use Vuvox to instantly produce dynamic interactive panoramas with hot-spots.
Presentation Zen Presentation Zen Stop your presentation before it kills again! « Kicking ass is more fun | Main | Featuritis vs. the Happy User Peak » Stop your presentation before it kills again! Sometimes the best presentation is... no presentation. Ditch the slides completely. Especially if the slides are bullet points. Or if critical data is presented in a form that leads to brain-death, talked about by Tufte in this Wired article, and in more detail in his book, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. The second you dim the lights and go into "presentation mode" is the moment you move from a two-way conversation to a one-way lecture/broadcast. Then there's the phenomenon of "talking to the slides", where the speaker is constrained into following a script. But given how many people hate slide presentations, why is it universally assumed that where there is "a talk", there's PowerPoint (or its much cooler cousin, Apple's KeyNote)? I know the arguments in favor of slides: Visuals are more memorable than words alone. True. It keeps the speaker and presentation on track.
PowerPoint and Presentation Tips If I was a betting man, I’d bet PowerPoint is going to turn mankind into zombies. Why are we so addicted to using PowerPoint (or anything showing slide after slide of bulleted information) when our initial gut reactions to viewing one is dread? Maybe it’s because PowerPoint is our only real experience with information presentation—introduced first in school and then reinforced at work. If you’ve become a bullet point abuser or just want to spice up your presentations, check out these great tips on creating non-zombifying presentations. Presentation Zen - Presentation Zen contains a wealth of information on creating professional presentations. Two of their articles which recently caught my eye are Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic and Living large: “Takahashi Method” uses king-sized text as a visual . Powerful Pointers for Presenters - A great list of articles and sites related to improving presentations.
A List of The Best Free Digital Storytelling Tools for Teachers 1- ZimmerTwins It is all about creative storytelling. ZimmerTwins is a web2.0 tool that allows students to give vent to their imaginative powers and exercise their storytelling skills from early stages to advances ones. 2- Digital Story Telling in The Classroom This section provides resources and materials for teachers to use with their students in storytelling. It helps students personalize their learning and perform better. Students can use these materials to create a movie or interactive slideshow to tell their stories. 3- Story Bird This is an awesome website that allows students and teachers to create short art inspired stories to read, share or print out. 4- Someries Someries is a fantastic storytelling site . 5- PicLits This is another awesome website where students can choose a picture and start drawing or writing a text on it to create a story. 7- Capzles This is where you and your students can create rich multimedia stories with videos, photos, music, blogs and documents.
Books - Essay: The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint In corporate and government bureaucracies, the standard method for making a presentation is to talk about a list of points organized onto slides projected up on the wall. For many years, overhead projectors lit up transparencies, and slide projectors showed high-resolution 35mm slides. Now "slideware" computer programs for presentations are nearly everywhere. Early in the 21st century, several hundred million copies of Microsoft PowerPoint were turning out trillions of slides each year. Alas, slideware often reduces the analytical quality of presentations. In particular, the popular PowerPoint templates (ready-made designs) usually weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, and almost always corrupt statistical analysis. 32 pages, full color. For more about PowerPoint, here's a sample from the essay: PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Reports