Creating Digital Presentations

            The majority of educators are stuck in time and do not explore new technology available to create engaging presentations. Hicks (2013) explained that students should not create “power pointless” presentations. Teaching students at an early age to design engaging presentations is imperative to break the cycle of ineffective presentations. Technology can be very effective or ineffective in presentations. The majority of the time, a presenter will check technology off of the list because a PowerPoint presentation was incorporated into the presentation. Typically PowerPoint presentations are very lengthy and boring, causing the audience to become disengaged. There are new and exciting digital presentation tools that will motivate students to create engaging presentations inside and outside of the classroom. For example, I created a digital presentation using PowToon. The website was very easy and fun to use.

             Handouts are a good tool to refer to information later, but needs to be used in an effective way to retain the attention of the audience. When given a handout with all of the information provided, I will tune out the presenter because most of the time they will read the bullet points word for word. In the Edutopia (2012) video, educator Kate Summers found that students learn material best when presenting the material. In the video, a group chose to use Google Presentations and created fill in the blank handouts for their classmates to take notes. Since the student audience were required to fill in the blanks, they were more likely to remain engaged in the presentation. 

            Students must concentrate on presenting material to leave a lasting impression. Hicks (2013) stated that the “stickiness” of a presentation as well as the presenter’s ability to tell a story will determine the effectiveness of the presentation.  In order to be successful, students need time to think about the purpose of their presentation and how they would like to present it to their audience. The revision and editing process is especially difficult for elementary students.  Story-like elements are easier for a young editor to identify and more beneficial to the creator of the presentation. Hicks (2013) emphasized the importance of focusing on qualitative properties instead of a quantitative list when reviewing a presentation. Duarte (2008) noted that arrangement, visual elements, and movement are the key to success when creating effective slide design. PicMonkey is a free online tool that allows students to edit photos that will benefit their presentation. Focusing more on aesthetic appeal instead of solely focusing on grammatical correctness will teach students how to revise and edit effectively. Ultimately, teaching students to present material in an engaging way will provide confidence to the presenter.     

                                                        
                                                     References

Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology: The art and science of creating great 
      presentations (1^st ed.). Sebastopol, CA:O’Reilly Media.

Edutopia. (2012, September 12). Collaborative digital presentations enrich 

      projects [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com
      /watch?v=KzCQH58Bwpo

 

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: Composing texts across media and 

     genres. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Photo editor | PicMonkey: Free Online Photo Editing. (n.d.). Retrieved 
     October 12, 2014.  

PowToon, free business presentation software animated video ... 
     (n.d.). Retrieved October 12, 2014.