Performing and Creating Speeches, Demonstrations, and Collaborative Learning Experiences With Cool New Digital Tools

50 Pages·2013·18.454 MB·English

by  Susan Meyer

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Published in 2014 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
29 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010
Copyright © 2014 by The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
First Edition
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Meyer, Susan.
Performing and creating speeches, demonstrations, and collaborative learning experi-
ences with cool new digital tools/by Susan Meyer.
p. cm. — (Way beyond PowerPoint: making 21st-century presentations)
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4777-1837-7 (library binding) — ISBN 978-1-4777-1851-3 (pbk.)
— ISBN 978-1-4777-1852-0 (6-pack)
1. Public speaking — Juvenile literature. 2. Speechwriting — Juvenile literature. I.
Meyer, Susan, 1986–. II. Title.
PN4129.15 M49 2014
808.5—dc23
Manufactured in the United States of America
CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #W14YA: For further information, contact Rosen Publishing, New York, New York, at 1-800-237-9932.
CONTENTS
Introduction 4
Chapter 1 Presentations Enter the
Twenty-First Century 7
Chapter 2
Tricked Out: Enhancing with Multimedia 17
Chapter 3
Setting It in Motion:
Screencasting and Animation 23
Chapter 4
Get the Word Out! Sharing Your Presentation 29
Glossary 39
For More Information 41
For Further Reading 44
Bibliography 45
Index 46
INTRODUCTION
Thomas Suarez is a whiz kid by anyone’s definition. At ten years old, he
persuaded his parents to loan him the 99 cents he needed to download the
Apple app development kit. This kit helps people create applications like tools
and games for mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Before his par-
ents knew it, Thomas had used his programming skills to create Bustin Jieber,
a game app designed for the anti-Justin Bieber crowd at his middle school
that pokes fun at the pop star. But awareness of Thomas’s game didn’t remain
confined to only his group of friends at school.
One of the ways that Thomas was able to have his game reach a much
larger audience was by giving a presentation about it. At the age of twelve,
he introduced Bustin Jieber to the masses on an online platform called TED
Talks. TED stands for “Technology, Entertainment, and Design,” and its motto is
“Ideas Worth Spreading.” TED Talks started as presentations that were deliv-
ered during the annual TED Conference. Now these talks are available for
download and streaming online.
Thomas has a passion not only for building apps, but also for sharing his
interests with others. The key to a great presentation is a true interest in the
content and the desire to teach it. Thanks to the power of digital tools and
being able to use the platform of TED Talks, Thomas was able to spread his
4
Thomas Suarez won an award at the Tribeca Disruptive
Innovation Awards for his app development, his popular
TED talk, and his advocacy for app clubs in public schools.
These awards are given out to people whose ideas have 5
broken the mold to create something new and exciting.
Performing and Creating SPeeCheS, demonStrationS, and Collaborative learning exPerienCeS WITH COOL NEW DIGITAL TOOLS
message on the Internet. Based on the strength of the positive reaction to his
talk, Thomas went on to found his own company, CarrotCorp.
The good news is you don’t have to be a pre-teen programmer to use
innovative technology and tools to make a great presentation. Many digital
programs and software are very easy to use. They can help you find the best
way to package and present the information that you want to share. New
digital tools can also help you reach a larger audience with your message.
They can help you tailor that message to a specific audience that might find
the information relevant. New digital tools can also help you organize your
material into key slides. You can even create and pre-record your own content
to play later or upload to the Internet.
While the most important parts of any presentation are the content and
the time that you put into writing and research, how you present the informa-
tion can have a huge impact on how your audience receives it. With so many
cool new Web sites, software, and tools designed just for creating, improving,
and showcasing presentations, there’s no end to what you can do. If you have
an assignment for school or even just an idea that interests you and that you
want to share and explore with others, you can create an amazing presenta-
tion or speech. All that is required is your imagination, creativity, and a little
help from the latest digital technology.

6
Presentations enter
the twenty-First
Century
For many students, being assigned a speech, demonstration, or group
project is a nightmare come true. But it doesn’t have to be! A presenta-
tion can be an exciting chance to teach your classmates something new
you’ve learned. If your teacher assigns a speech or demonstration, it
1
can be scary at first. Whether you are presenting information you’ve
r
researched or your own opinions, talking in front of an audience by your-
e
self or with a group of students can inspire nervousness and high anxiety. t
p
If you are allowed to include digital components, there are plenty
a
of exciting tools that will kick your presentation up to the next level.
h
Including visual and audio elements can take some of the nervousness C
out of presenting, as multimedia content can provide you with cues that
will help you remember what to say next. Also, designing a really great
multimedia presentation will make you that much more excited to share it
with others, and that excitement will trump any lingering nervousness.
PowerPoint
One of the earliest versions of presentation software ever created was
Microsoft’s PowerPoint. It remains one of the most popular. PowerPoint
was first launched in 1990. It has now been installed on more than one
billion computers. An estimated 350 PowerPoint presentations are given
every single second worldwide.
At its most basic, PowerPoint allows users to make slides with pho-
tos, text, bulleted points, videos, charts and graphs, and animations in
order to easily display information. A slide is basically a blank canvas
7
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Interactive whiteboards are a new technology that have
changed the way teachers and students present informa-
tion in the classroom. Whiteboards allow users to project
8
information on a board or screen while still interacting with
both the material and the audience.
Presentations enter the twenty-First Century
upon which you can project and display words and ideas. You can choose
different templates based on what you want on the slide, such as a title, sub-
title with text, or maybe text with a photo. This can make it easier to decide
how to format the presentation.
During the presentation, a user can switch slides with just a click of a
button. A user can also time the slideshow to advance automatically as he or
she speaks. Adding photos, videos, and charts is a good way to include
visual aids in your PowerPoint presentation. PowerPoint also allows users to
create animated transitions between slides, such as having the words slide on
and off or dissolve away. These special effects can be fun, but try not to over-
use them. Make sure everything you add to your presentation truly
enhances—rather than distracts from—the content. Long and elaborate transi-
tions between slides don’t always add to your presentation. In some cases,
they just slow it down.
Having been around for over twenty years, PowerPoint has evolved with
the changing technology. One of these advances is the ability to post your
presentation online. This is made possible by cloud computing, which means
storing and managing data over the Internet so that it can be accessed from
anywhere.
Storing your presentation in the cloud also makes it available for viewing
on many different computers. This means you can work on your presentation
at home or at the library, and then access it in class to present it from your
classroom computer, projection screen, or whiteboard. PowerPoint’s cloud stor-
age capability works particularly well with group projects and collaborative
presentations. If your teacher needs to look at your presentation while you are
working on it, you can grant access and your teacher can view it from school
or home at his or her convenience. Or if you are working on a group project,
the group members can all have access to the presentation, even if they are
working from different computers. In fact, PowerPoint allows several collabora-
tors to write and edit the same document from different computers at the exact
same time. This feature is called coauthoring. During a coauthoring session,
each user can see who else is updating the presentation and receive notifica-
tion when changes are made.
9