Developing your presenting skills

Penny Robertson, Jisc RSC ScotlandTAFLIN - 02 May, 2013

“There are only two types of speakers in the world. 1. The nervous and 2. Liars.” - Mark Twain

Don’t…

Scream / Muskva http://www.flickr.com/photos/muskva/110503301/

preparation

production…main tool store / clintjcl

http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/

performance

Tay Rail Bridge Looking to Dundee / Ross 2085 http://www.flickr.com/photos/9610484@N05/1120947616/

Preparation

• Think about what you want to achieve–Educate and inform

• Purpose–Why and what

• Audience–Who and where

Preparation

• Know your subject

• Develop a theme

• List the key concepts and points to convey

• Begin to think about ways of illustrating the key points

Building Blocks / nazly http://www.flickr.com/photos/nazly/5502884394/

Preparation: structure• Opening

– Tell them what you are going to tell them

• Body

– Tell them

• Summary

– Tell them what you told them

And in the beginning…

Librarians created the card catalogue system and all was well in the

world…

Structure: opening

• Introduce problem to be addressed and context

• State purpose, scope and main message

• Give outline of presentation

Structure: main body

• Create an outline or storyboard

• Break up with each section making a key point

• Present incrementally, concisely and in logical order

• Illustrate with clear examples and visual aids

Newport-on-Tay, and the Tay Road Bridge/widdowquinn http://www.flickr.com/photos/widdowquinn/3326035503/ [

it’s all about the flow

Structure: concluding

•Must have a clear end to talk

•Brief and simple summary of main points

•Reinforce the main message

•Put in context of the “big picture”

Hand technique

• Who you are• What the point is• What the upshot is• Your organisation that your

married to• How does it affect the little guy

Preparation: quick summary

• Know your audience• Consider your topic and the key points• Give your presentation structure–Beginning–Middle–End

• Don’t overload with too much information

Production

•What’s on the slide•Pictures & video•Tools

• Dundee College’s digitisation diaries: an investigation into the feasibility, benefits and issues of digitising materials for FE.

• Until academic year 2012-13, Dundee College’s library team had never before been asked to digitise materials. The initial request prompted a study into the feasibility of the library undertaking digitisation requests for three key reasons: to improve services available to users; to promote and assist in the use of materials on the VLE and to achieve better value for money under the current CLA Licence.

• Over the last year, Dundee College has seen many changes. The five campus estate slimmed down to two large campuses, Kingsway and Gardyne, and there were numerous systems and IT developments. One of the developments was the implementation of Moodle, replacing Blackboard, as the College’s VLE.

Don’t…

Nice clear (obvious heading)

• Bullet to make each point• Sans serif font (possibly a personal

preference)!• Large font (easy to read from a

distance)• White space

Think about your colour schemes…

DON’T

USE

TOO MANY

Transitions&

Animations

Visual aids•Charts and tables•Images•Moving image/videos

Visual Aids

Images

Simpsons Boat/herzgogbr http://www.flickr.com/photos/herzogbr/2912789717/

• Use flickr for finding images

• Choose advanced search

• Choose Creative Commons Licensed option

• Always attribute images you use

www.flickr.com/search/advanced

http://creativecommons.org/

Moving image/videos

Tools I• More to life than PowerPoint…• Prezi• Keynote• Google docs• Sliderocket• Tiki toki• visual.ly• Slideshare

Tools II Tablet apps for presenting:

•Sliderocket (also android)•Preziviewer•Ideaflight•Xavier Presentation•SlideGrabber•Mighty Meeting (android only)

Production: quick summary

• Consider font sizes & layout of text• Don’t go OTT with transition &

animation• Use images, charts & film to bring

your slides to life• Experiment with other tools for

presentations

Performance• Don’t lose audience• Keep audience informed about

what you are doing and why?• Summarise points you would like

them to go away with• Use positive language

DeliveryWinging it

+ sounds natural-has much room for error

Speaking from slides + insures organization+ allows eye contact+ allows improvising-some room for error

Memorising a speech+ allows eye contact-difficult for long speeches-no room for improvising

Reading From a Text + ensures precision-does not sound natural-no room for improvising-hinders eye contact

Performance

• Nerves• Be prepared• Rehearse• Structured presentation• Memorise openings & endings• Smile, breathe deeply, slow down and

pause

How to give a bad talk• Thou shalt not be neat • Thou shalt not waste space • Thou shalt cover thy naked slides • Thou shalt not write large • Thou shalt not use colour • Thou shalt not illustrate • Thou shalt not make eye contact • Thou shalt not skip slides in a long talk • Thou shalt not practice!

In summary…

“The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives.” - Lily Walters

Thanks for listening!

twitter: @PennyRobertsone: penny.robertson@rsc-scotland.ac.uk