Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Creating effective presentations

posted by Mary Ann Scheuer - cross-posted at Research and Reflections

I've been working hard on developing a strong presentation for my Vision Project for a school library. My first step was thinking deeply about how I shape and share my vision. But the next step is about how I present those ideas. I want to make my presentation dynamic and impactful. I know I want to avoid a lengthy Power Point presentation, but what are some key points for an effective presentation?

Gwyneth Jones, aka The Daring Librarian, has a great presentation called "How to be a Presentation Ninja".  SlideShare is an excellent tool to use, both to save and share your own presentations but also to follow other outstanding librarians. Here is Gwyneth's presentation


How to be a Presentation Ninja from gwyneth jones

I also have taken a lot of inspiration from Joyce Valenza, both in terms of the content she shares and the way she puts together effective, clear slides. Here is a recent presentation she shared on SlideShare called "Five Forward."


Fiveforward from joycevalenza

Here's another presentation I love from Joyce Valenza, called New Rules.

Newrules from joycevalenza

Some of my takeaways from these presentations:
  • Use strong visuals. Capture people's attention with pictures.
  • Use Creative Commons images from Flickr and cite your sources.
  • Consider purchasing a dynamic image from iStock Photo.
  • Use words sparingly to focus attention.
  • Use dynamic, bold fonts.
  • Add clear, streamlined text to images.
  • Share your presentations. Spread the word beyond the initial audience.
I've started working on my Vision Project, developing a Prezi: Creating Dynamic School Libraries. If anyone has the time to take a look and share their comments, I'd love that. One of the things that I so admire about Joyce Valenza and Gwyneth Jones are that they share their ideas openly and freely.

Thanks, Mary Ann

2 comments:

  1. Wow, what a great post, Mary Ann! LOVE the Ninja presentation, and you've definitely taken her advice and run with it in your Prezi. It's beautiful and you've found some terrific images. The vision feels a little broad...will you be providing specific examples on how you would implement this vision at a particular site or is it an intentionally general overview?

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  2. Thanks, Cassy! I LOVE her visual style, but had to adapt it to my personality (I don't feel like a ninja!).

    Yes, I do think you're right that the vision is a little broad. I wonder how to make it more specific in the slides, given that I want to keep the text minimal. Really, I see the text as anchors so that visual people can follow the presentation. It will be important to include specific examples as I prepare my talk.

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