The final presentation (not)

My Comm218 class has come to an end! That means 6 units, and 10 weeks to go to complete my 40 year quest for a BS degree in Information Technology - Software Engineering!
Not bad for a guy who started out as a navy nuke, electrical tech, Top40 DJ, Musician (still), TV Director, Voice over talent, Commercial Producer, Software Developer, Director of Technology, Business Analyst, oh, and dad, grandpa, and  husband! It's been an exciting life and I can't say there have been many regrets. Maybe a few, but fortunately not many.
So enough drivel... the point of this particular post has todo with filling in some blanks on my last presentation for class.
First, a photo - Sunset over San Francisco.  That's what I saw from my hotel during my last taped presentation for class. After I posted the assignment, I thought it might have been rude that I didn't show it after I mentioned it - it WAS beautifully distracting! So here you go! Nature's beauty over man's creation - the Oakland Bay Bridge with its lights on as the sun set over the pacific ocean.

Technology for Presentations - Part 3 of 3

I remember one the first presentations where the chalkboard wasn't used. The overhead projector! Those plastic overlays where a teacher could actually animate a stick figure with a grease pencil was amazing to this impressionable 2nd grader! No more SCREECH on the chalkboard, no more white powdery fingers!
Then came the whiteboard. Aptly named, (the marketing folks outdid themselves on this one) the whiteboard gave us the ability to use different colors, enhancing our experience (not to mention the fumes, and yes, I passed on the previous chalkboard reference) and giving a perceived increase in ability to make changes. Erasing a white board could be done with a single wipe as opposed to the considerable effort required of a chalkboard or overlay. The problem with all of these technologies was that it required a relatively small audience and a good steady hand. From my video presentation last week, this was demonstrated by my left-handed penmanship trying to scribble on an easel. Thank goodness for PowerPoint! It eliminated my fear of exposing my poor handwriting. No more jealousy! (seriously, I hated giving presentations mostly because of my handwriting)
PowerPoint 1.0 was little more than a whiteboard - further versions provided enhancements to allow embedding audio, video, run external applications, browse to live websites, trigger external events, etc. What's next?  3-D perhaps, Holo Lens from Microsoft is an exciting technology that gives a user a virtual experience in an augmented reality. Here's an example (opens in new window) Hololens Teleports NASA Scientist in TED Talk Think of 3 dimensional overlays in your real world. Learn to cook with a virtual chef showing you how to measure, stir, and flip an omelet!
Maybe it's touch sensors that enable you to experience the texture of virtually anything in the world. Anything that tickles the senses is fair game for the future of presentation technology!

Technology for Presentations - Part 2 of 3

Part 1's post was about Prezi, a presentation software that uses the big canvas for displaying and navigating through relational content.
Today, the Nevada caucuseseses (whatever) are meeting to vote on their candidate of choice.
Voting during meetings has been around since the first conflict. Types of voting include no vote (coin toss), rock, paper, scissors, (vote by skill) and then actually counting a vote (no hanging chads please.)
The first several seasons of America's Funniest Home Videos included the phrase "Lock in your vote now." They used wired devices on the back of each chair to provide a simple input that determined that week's winner. I can imagine the spaghetti string of wires snaking through the studio to a tabulator that counted the responses! What a mess! Today, voting can be done on a smart phone, or over bluetooth. Voting is not just A or B either, but can include qualitative dialog (think tweets, or yelp)
Voting during presentations is done either subtly (yawn) or overt like the response to a question. And the type of vote counting can be determined by the need for accuracy. "How many people have ever driven a car over the speed limit?" - a simple raise of the hand will suffice.
"How many of you vote for Pedro?" requires a slightly more sophisticated method to provide some level of accuracy.
How will we vote in the future?  Walking out? did that.  Raise of hand? of course. Vote with your wallet? daily. Whatever methods are developed in the future, they will be as simple as a nod or wink if they are to survive.

Technology for Presentations - Part 1 of 3

We've all heard of "death by PowerPoint" (DBPP) - but what does that really mean? Is PowerPoint actually just the scapegoat for a poorly delivered presentation? I think so!  Why? Because the presenter is the one with the monotone robotic voice is most examples of DBPP. Further, the presenter (or his/her cronies) are the folks that create the PowerPoint slides to begin with! Maybe it should be simplified to DBP instead (Death by Presentation)
Creativity is something developed over time. It requires effort, change, and an interest in becoming different. Presentations since the creation of PowerPoint have changed very little in structure and style until now!
One of the problems with presentations is knowing what to expect. Television programs usually run in increments of 30 minutes. We know a movie will be 2 hours, a situation comedy 30 minutes. When a presentation begins, do you know how long you'll be held captive? Do you understand the number of topics being presented, or depth of content? Usually not, and the presentation software Prezi  (www.prezi.com) has an interesting solution that uses a "big picture" view of the presentation.
Here's an example Navigating The Flipped Classroom (opens in a new window)
By using a single canvas and them zooming in and out of detail, there is the ability to describe relationships that exist within the content.  Imagine traversing a family tree or organization chart using PowerPoint. It can be done, but the visual understanding of linkage (or lineage) might be too difficult to retain. Prezi does a good job at showing relationships. From a software developer point of view, Prezi would probably be an interesting tool to use showing an entity relationship diagram (ERD.)  ERD's can be very detailed showing the data types, i.e. string, number, date, object, etc and navigating through that detail is usually done with a large printout. Using a tool such as Prezi that lets you navigate into each entity with a visual reference to related entities might prove valuable in discussions. I'll give it a try and report back in a coupleof months when my current project begins to take flight!

 (Prezi is a registered trademark of Prezi Inc )

Topics

Oh what to pick for a topic...
Tonight, I got nothin...
But here's what you might expect in the future

• It's evaluation and goal setting time!
• Being civil in your disagreements with IT
• Chasing the cheerleader (whaaat???)
• Mobile Application Development - what a mixed bag...
• Modeling data
• Naming conventions (a topic from the "who cares" department)

Presentation Evaluations (whatever that is)

Last week, my public speaking class required an informative presentation around 7 minutes long. And this seems to happen the minute I've posted the assignment or walked off the platform. The "what if's" and "I forgot to say's"!  Why? Because for some reason, 7 minutes isn't enough to make a point? Or maybe the point was wrong? Nooooo,  maybe it's because we don't have the confidence to know when it's over!
30 years ago, I was a TV director. The dream job for me would have been directing the soap opera General Hospital. I knew a few people on the show and was able to finagle a tour of the set and to meet one of the directors, Marlena Laird. Her directing was like a movie with cameras moving about on long scenes - very artful. But then I realized, this required an amazing amount of effort and time. I preferred directing live broadcasts for a couple of reasons. First, there was no "take 5, take 6, do it again until its perfect", and two, you absolutely knew when it was over! (and the fat lady didn't have to sing, the clock told me so) No edits, no rewinding the tape and starting over, it was done!
The same is true for our presentations - when it's posted, we're done, so don't dwell on it. Make a note on what you might improve on for the next time, but spending "too much time" (whatever that is) thinking about what might be, might turn into a distracting obsession. And then what? You think about the performance over the content? I hope not. I've seen some very interesting presentations, delivered by my classmates, my peers. Each one of them is exactly perfect for this time and place. Sure, we might shy away from the camera, or talk a little "fast", but they are all getting "better" (whatever that is!) How do you judge these presentations? My hope is that we are all getting more comfortable with ourselves.

Marlena Laird accepting a daytime Emmy in 1981

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Overview - Engaging An Audience / Successful Presentations

Welcome to the first entry! These first posts will be directly related to my COMM/218 class.
Public Speaking in an online forum seems strange doesn't it?! Blogging is the new method of communicating ideas and knowledge, challenges and revelations!
Some bloggers make their living giving opinions just like a radio talk show host! (except you don't have to set an appointment to listen) To be a successful blogger, just like a host, you must engage the audience. If they listen once and tune away, the chances of getting them back are pretty slim.
There are a few methods used to engage an audience.
1. Tell a story - this paints a picture in the mind of what is being presented. It engages the listener to become "active" in the presentation by requiring their minds to participate.
2. Be enthusiastic. I won't frequent a business that isn't glad I'm there, why should I listen to someone who isn't enthusiastic about their product, idea, or topic?
3. Be credible (and honest).  Personally, the hyperbole of saying "it ALWAYS happens this way" or "EVERYONE believes that this is true" makes me instantly question the credibility of the presenter. Choose your words carefully and you'll find advocates in your corner ready to defend your ideas!
4.  Identify with the audience by noticing them. Point out something about the audience. In our case, we're a diverse groups of students, some with a significant knowledge and experience in technology. (hmmm, I've heard that before!)  Yes, I used that in my intro last week, did you notice? :-)
5. Probably most important, explain why this topic is important to them. If it isn't important, then why waste their time?
More on the topic, next week!

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