Posts Tagged ‘presentation’
Interesting vs important
Posted on: January 4, 2021
The recent mass experiments on “home-based learning” might have provided parents with a small taste of what teachers have to deal with every day and on a larger scale. But this is not as the same as having insights on their preparatory work.
It is not often that people see what teachers and educators do to prepare for classes. So this video of a teacher psyching himself up might enlighten some stakeholders.
According to the video, the teacher did pushups before class and forced himself smile before he entered a classroom. This ritual was made transparent only by video capture and interview.
Less visible but critically more important rituals might include the preparation of lesson materials, rehearsals of such lessons, and the feedback on assignments. These are mundane and no amount of video wizardry and interview savvy will make these look interesting. But real educators know that interesting is not the same as important. We focus on the latter.
Embedding audio scaffolds
Posted on: March 15, 2020
Presentations are sometimes necessary evils. At worst they are lectures conducted in the name of efficient dissemination of information. However, they do not ensure that students actually learn.
Instead I am planning on using Google Presentations as a scaffold for semi-self-directed learning during an asynchronous online class. The learning is not pure SDL because I am pointing, telling, and guiding the process. To do this, I am embedding audio cues in the slides embedded in a Google Site.
Video source
The video above provides instructions and tips on how to do this in the latest iteration of Google Presentations. The essential steps are:
- Prepare a script.
- Record audio instructions as MP3 or WAV files.
- Upload the audio files in a shared folder in Google Drive.
- Insert each audio file to the slide that requires it (From the menu: Insert -> Audio -> select folder and file).
- Test the playback.
I am scheduling this entry to coincide with the end of my talk in the Philippines this morning.
My Google Slides deck is available online.
First, some background.
I was approached to deliver this talk two weeks ago. By the time the contract document was finalised, I had just six days to prepare the slide deck.
This was a very short runway because I normally work with partners who contact me three to six months, or even a year, in advance. I can recall only one other similar late request. In both these cases, I either knew someone well or had worked with the organiser before.
I wrote earlier that I prefer the “stewing” method of preparation. This gives me time and space to make changes based on more current information I find. I agreed to help even though this was an “instant noodle” request only because I had delivered similar talks before.
Despite the short runway, I decided to challenge myself by using my own visual design approach, refreshing old content, and incorporating new information. This meant very quick and intense work, but very little rehearsal.
As with all talks, I struggled during preparation to decide how much content to include. I decided to remove three of four broad topics, but left the content in the slide deck just in case they came up during the Q&A.
Now, a bit of history. This is the fourth year in a row that I have been invited by a group in the Philippines.
- 2013: Keynote for Philippine eLearning Society
- 2014: Plenary for Policy Governance and Capacity Building Conference
- 2015: Keynote for De La Salle University
- 2016: GenYo Innovation Summit by DIWA, Philippines (partner of Marshall Cavendish, Singapore)
None of these visits were by my design. They were a result of doing good work, making connections, and maintaining a constant online presence.
Finally, a strategy. I share as openly as I can. If there is a contract, I ask that the resources I prepare be shared under a Creative Commons license. I stipulate this in every proposal document I prepare.
This practice does at least two important things. It keeps my resources searchable and accessible online, and it encourages my partners to rethink their closed practices. It is my small way of promoting open-minded and open-practised changes in educational technology.
Barbed remark?
Posted on: October 31, 2015
I appreciated having access to the official transcript of the speech that Mr Ong Ye Kung, Acting Minister for Education (Higher Education and Skills), gave at the Opening of the OECD-Singapore Conference on Higher Education Futures on 14 October 2015.
The speech ticked all the right rhetorical boxes. I took comfort from the words of one of our two new Ministers for Education. To move from comfort to confidence, I await action.
Some of the action might have to start right at his doorstep. This is a screenshot I took and underlined from the TODAY copy of the transcript.
I got the message of diversifying our educational system to meet to varied needs. Everything he mentioned in the latter paragraph showed thought leadership.
But does our minister have the support of people who think similarly and are able to put excellent rhetoric into play? If they are beginning presentations with similar templates, are they not reliant on cookie-cutters?
Some might point out that the same start does not mean the same path or the same end. They might also say that a common template shows shared values and unity of purpose.
However, the disruption and change described by the minister require different starts, culling of sacred cows, and striving for uncertain ends. If the situation could be likened to a biological one, then what we do not need is a small and shallow gene pool. Quite the opposite.
Are we diverse enough? Do we listen to voices in our deserts? Do we embrace our outliers?
Later today I will conduct a presentation on educational crowdsourcing.
I was invited by a university to contribute to a seminar where one of the themes was to push the practice of collaboration.
I have opted to focus on how faculty might do this by positioning students as content creators and teachers. It is one of my teaching philosophies that students learn best when they take these roles.
During my presentation, I back up this stance by citing the theory and/or research behind such practice. I also share my own experiences doing these when I was a university academic.
Update: My Google Slides are at http://bit.ly/iits-praxis.
A meaningful birthday present
Posted on: January 22, 2015
I am a year older today.
It was one of the few birthdays I marked without loved ones beside me. I am away in London to deliver a short talk at Bett 2015 tomorrow.
Before I left, my wife bought me a pair of Bose QC25 noise-cancelling headphones as an early birthday present. It was so early that I received it at Christmas last year!
The headphones have already helped me immensely.
They shut noise out so that I could think while I was out and about. They dampened the sound of a funeral downstairs while I was drafting this entry in advance of my trip.
They neutralized the ambient sounds on my flight to London so that I could create a cocoon of comfort.
The silence gave me pause for thought. Did I have to shut the sounds of the analogue world so that I could create content for the digital one? Was I favouring one world for the other?
Perhaps. When I need laser-like focus, I do what I can to provide an environment in which to concentrate. But when I meet people in person, I provide that same focus too, sans headphones.
I am planning to meet and will have already met folks here in the UK. The appointments were made because I have a social media presence and because they know me from what I create online. So there is no false dichotomy of digital versus analogue; one process leads to the other.
Reach to teach
Posted on: May 28, 2014
This is my concluding slide in a plenary talk I am giving for the Policy, Governance and Capacity Building teachers’ conference in the Philippines. By the time you read this, I will be enroute to Manila. After a good night’s rest, I present tomorrow afternoon before flying back later that evening.
My concluding message to the Filipino teachers is that they must understand their students, learn from them, and even be like them before they can begin to teach them.
I still think that talks are necessary evils. They may be good at creating awareness and inspiring people, but they are not good at ensuring meaningful learning or sustained action. Talks are like hit-and-runs in that sense.
What matters is the aftercare. Often the ones hit are left to their own devices. Sometimes they are given some form of support or guidance. Rarely is this support or guidance sustained.
It is not enough to reach out to people for change. They may find your message inspiring and buy in. Ideally they take ownership of the change processes.
But I have found that if you are not there over a sustained period, the change efforts peter out. You must also be there to nurture and teach. That is what I am basing my consulting services on once I leave NIE.
PEIS 2014 presentation
Posted on: May 15, 2014
Today I will be sharing my thoughts on ICT-mediated change with representatives from private education institutes (PEIs) at a seminar in Singapore.
Prior to this, I asked to visit a few PEIs. The organizers arranged for two and I learnt quite a bit about the PEI state of affairs.
Armed with the information I collected, I hope to provide some value to what they do by creating some cognitive dissonance on their belief systems and ways of doing things.
I share my Google Slides openly. But, as always, the slides do not tell the stories. Only I do.
My ICE2013 keynote
Posted on: December 6, 2013
By the time you read this, I should be in the middle of my keynote at ICE2013.
The Google Slides are here.
As is my practice now, I will be leveraging on a backchannel, online polls, and interactions with the audience so that they become participants.
I like creating dissonance, but I hope I do not scare them too much!
This morning I keynote at a military event. I am remixing much of the content from a previous presentation I gave at MobiLearn Asia 2013, Jailbreaking Schooling with Mobile Learning.
As I am scheduling this blog entry, I will probably be in the middle of my presentation.
I have more time with this presentation and the audience is going to be several times larger than at the conference.
I have asked participants to bring their smartphones to participate in a poll, backchannel, and think-pair-share activities. If they are allowed to use QR readers, they can scan the ones that litter my presentation. It is my small way of changing what happens at keynotes.
Another dot in the blogosphere? 