PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

Upcoming Presentation - Enhancing Your PowerPoint Presentations

I'll be conducting a web seminar for Magna Publications early next year.  The web seminar is part of a series of live and online presentations that Magna offers to the higher education market.  My seminar "Enhancing Your PowerPoint Presentations" would be of interest to faculty in higher education that are looking for tips and techniques to bring their presentations from boring to engaging using PowerPoint. 

You can hear a preview audio clip of the presentation (Download magna_ppt_presentation_preview_clip.mp3 ).  If you are interested in this specific web seminar, please contact Magna Publications for further details and pricing information.

If you'd like to talk to me about your organization's presentation training needs using web seminars or other live training sessions, please give me a call in the United States at 608 255 4092 or via e-mail.

I'm also available for keynotes on presentation skills and PowerPoint, executive coaching on presentation skills and for reviewing your current PowerPoint strategies for internal and external audiences.

Paul J Gibler

Dibs and Dabs from the News - Boo Boos, Psychology and Kids

Presentation Boo Boo... "Lawmaker shows Naked Woman during school lecture" 
Looks like he didn't load his PPT properly.

Meeting Room PowerPlays... "You Are Where You Sit"
Business Week writer Aili McConnon dissects how where you sit in a meeting can build or diminish your organizational power. 

Kiddies with the Point..."In the Classroom, Blazing a Path from Fidgeting to Focus"
Elementary School Teacher Roberta Valentine uses PowerPoint to help kids talk about their distractability and mind trips.

UC Requires MBA Applicants to Submit PPT Show

In yet another example of the ubiquitous use of PowerPoint in the business world, the University of Chicago will require prospective students to submit a PowerPoint presentation as part of their application package according to the Associated Press.  In an interesting twist on the mind numbing reputation associated with PowerPoint, the University sees the four page PowerPoint presentation as an opportunity for students to showcase their creativity in a way outside the school required responses in the application process.  The presentations do have a couple of rules "no hyperlinks, and no video".

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If you're looking for PowerPoint and Presentation Skills training for your organization give me a call (608) 255 4092 or e-mail me.  I'd be happy to discuss a customized or semi-custom program to meet your needs.  I've offered PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques training for MBA students at Marquette University for the past 4 years.

Presentation Enhancement with ARS - Audience Response System Summary

Audience response systems are gaining some credibility in education (K-12, higher education), corporate meetings, marketing research and professional development circles.  Some of you may be familiar with these systems, while for others this could be new technology.  The systems were developed to allow forfacilitator/speaker/trainer/educator real time interaction with students/attendees.

The systems create an opportunity for anonymous or user tagged polling and instant feedback on the topic in question.  Here is a screen shot of a poll that was provided by TurningPoint, a leading vendor of ARS systems.

System Configuration
Typical systems include several items:

1. Keypads (Radio Frequency or Infrared Technology)
2. Receiving station(s)
3. Proprietary Software for creating questions, receiving, tallying, reporting results
4. Protective Carrying cases

Here is a photograph of the carrying case, software disk and keypads for one of the systems that is offered by Turning Point. 

According to Wikipedia audience response systems vary from those for "co-located' audiences to those that allow for remote interaction with the presentation and the speaker.

Why the Interest in the Systems?
Research has been conducted in higher education circles that finds that those educated using audience or personal response systems have higher retention levels than a control group that did not.  One study conducted with OB/GYN residents found "Residents who received audience response system interactive lectures showed a 21% improvement between pretest and posttest scores; residents who received the standard lecture demonstrated a 2% improvement (P = .018)".

Other studies have found that active learning has been found to increase enjoyment, participation and retention. See "Physics lecturing with audience paced feedback" , "Audience Response Made Easy" or "Who wants to be..."

Vendors
One vendor, that has contacted me through their PR firm is Turning Technologies with their ARS System called Turning Point.  Their technology allows for multiple options since "event organizers can choose any of three handheld units: ResponseCard IR, using line-of-sight infrared (IR) technology effective up to 90 feet; ResponseCard XL, an IR unit that includes a self-paced testing mode; and ResponseCard RF, a radio frequency device that registers responses up to 400 feet away."  In addition, their keypads allow for text messaging in addition to simple polling or multiple choice answers, a definite advantage for more extensive essays and responses. 

Another vendor that I've dealt with is Option Technologies.  I found their technology to be easy to use, alhtough the keypads at the time I used them appeared to be significantly larger than those used by TurningPoint. 

I found a review of an implementation of Qwizdom, another system on a recent blog posting at Experiential Learning Center for Excellence in Teaching Learning at the University of Plymouth in England. 

Issues to address
Speaker/Teacher resistance to utilization - breaks the flow, uncertainty about how to use technology, hesitation to modify current pedagogical methodology, need some handholding and training, integration with their presentation content

Equipment issues - will the keypads walk or get lost?, maintenance issues, lease or purchase, number of keypads needed, having enough base stations for the number of keypads desired, technology to acquire RF or IR (depends on your anticipated audience size), testing prior to "live" usage

Staffing Issues - who in the training/meeting/academic department will manage the equipment, outsource to vendor

Software Issues - Integrating the software into the appropriate hardware for a given presentation or classroom setting

You can find out more about Audience Response Systems at AudienceResponseInfo.

If you've had experience with an audience response system, please feel free to add your comments on what has worked and what needs continued improvement.

PowerPoint Teaching Supplements

I'll be teaching an Introduction to e-Commerce course this fall at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.  I've adopted the new edition of a book for the course. 

In preparing the course, I've been looking over the instructor's supplemental material provided by the publisher, including the PowerPoint deck for each of the book's 15 chapters.  I've been surprised to find that the PowerPoint slides are very poor quality.  They fail at some of the basics of effective presentation materials in that they have few visuals (photographs, graphs or tables).  In addition they often include way too much copy and too many bullet points. 

It seems that publishers could enhance their visual supporting materials and could capture the revisions and updates that faculty around the country make to the same through some sort of wiki, blog or discussion board about the book.