Presentations... It's About The Narrative

Wendy James, Curriculum Renewal Technology Consultant and soon to be Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction for the Saskatoon Public Schools, presented  at the IT Summit on the Power of Presentations.  The following are some of the great points from her presentation.  I just couldn't type fast enough for more!

She showed us Google Search Stories, which took only minutes to learn and create, allowing the students to concentrate on the narrative.  After placing a series of search terms, Wendy suggests working from a big Idea to a more specific idea, I video is created.  Students can search the web, images, maps, news feeds, blogs products and books.  Goggle Search Stories can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories

Wendy stress with students to think about what the main idea I am trying to get across and how am I going to get this idea across clearly.  Google Search Stories works well to keep these concepts in mind.

Wendy uses ShareTabs to provide handouts for students.  This way students always have the materials on hand and can not lose the handouts!  The ShareTab for this session is located at:

http://sharetabs.com/?power-of-presentations-summit-2010

Having a backchannel, like http://typewith.me/, allow students to provide their thoughts and prior experience while a presentation is ongoing.  Students can then review this material.  Teachers and see which students contributed, allowing for Assessment for Learning feedback and evidence of learning.  Wendy does recommend keeping a copy of the work generated so it is not lost, whether it be copying and pasting or taking a screen capture.  Some other backchannel options include http://primarypad.com/ and http://titanpad.com/.  When using a backchannel, it is important to refer to it during the presentation or the information located on the backchannel is not utilized effectively.  While shifting every 15 minutes, usually from the individual to small groups to the large group is a commonly suggested structure, this may be a dissatisfier for those students who want to dig deeper.  Backchannels allow a blend of these groupings.

Consider who the audience is.
The traditional model of a presentation is for the audience to face the presenter.  We are conditioned to sit and listen to the speaker in this environment.  But, with a computer in front of the audience members, Continuous Partial Attention can interfere with learning.

Creating a rapport with the audience.
You need to show that you are ready. You need to show respect. Audience members do not feel respected if they are forced to speak but not asking questions lowers learning in a presentation by 32%.  A balance needs to be struck to maintain respect. Also, audience members want to know they are taking away new information.

Google Jockey
Having a Google Jockey allow someone in the room to fill gaps and additional provide information.  Even if it is only a photo of what the presenter is discussing, the material provided by the Google Jockey will increase the audience's recall by 50%.  With Google, various new search options, such as the Wonderwheel and the Timeline are powerful tools that can be encorporated by the Jockey.

Clearly articulating your message.
Images do generate interest and allow us to bring our prior knowledge to the topic more quickly.  We pre-process the concept.  The image can take us to a specific area of a topic.
Noises and flying words are a distraction.
Full sentences should not be used. 
There can be too much information on a slide.
The most powerful position is the top left and should be reserved for important information.
The maximum number of bullets on a slide should be 3 to 5.

Image Pitfalls
Complex Images.
Too much cognitive effort.
Distracting or misleading.
Not appropriate.

Points to consider for your Powerpoint.
No more than 30% of your content should be on your PowerPoint (max.  5% would be great)
At least half the area should have anything on it (Chunking and whitespace).
Keep a consistent look
Most importand points should be highlighted.
Keep your layout audience appropriate (more text for over 40, more images for younger students).
Pause more for older audiences.  They are more apt to write things down and need the time.
All detail should be verbal.

Copyright Issues
When using a photo from the web, Wendy posts a link to the original photo.  She also suggests using a site like Flickr where photos listed under a Creative Commons Licence can be specifically searched.

LEET

• Label
• Expand
• Evidence or Examples
• Tieback to main point

Often, when speaking, we skip the Expand step.  To practice meeting all these steps, record yourself with talking with a slide you are going to use for a presentation.

Hand Jestures
People often have a hand jesture that is distracting to the audience, but there are jestures that can help, along with moving forward to emphasize a point.  This is a heavily researched area in sales and politics. Destracting jestures create a version of white noise.

Loaded Language
Putting the subject at the beginning of a sentence is 3 times more persuasive than having the object at the beginning.  Another way to be persuasive is to incorporate larger concepts to draw in your audience.  It can create emotional appeal.

Wendy provided a ton of great ideas and concepts for presentations, both useful for presenters and as points to teach students.  I only was able to record a few of her points.  I would encourage you to check out her handouts from this session (and maybe even book her to speak at an event).

http://sharetabs.com/?power-of-presentations-summit-2010

Welcome Will Richardson

This is 4th time I have seen Will present, and I have been encouraging my division to work with him as a part of our professional learning next year. I tell you this up front, so you know the perspective from which I am writing. While I am at it, I'd like to thank Scott St. Pierre who posted yesterday to the blog, and has posted in the past. Will and Scott are both a part of my community of professional learners, and I have read Will's blog for a number of years.

Will's keynote is called Why the Read/Write Web Changes Everything. He start with an example story about a blind gamer and talked about how this is an example of how kids function. While he is very excited about technology and thinks it can change everything, he thinks schools have changed little: "There are few real examples of transformative change." Will cited one of his favorite quotations:

If you think that the future will require better schools you are wrong. The
future of education will call for entirely different schools. - Knowledge
Works Foundation

Will sees a couple of really critical, "tectonic" shifts because of the Read/Write web:

• If you have an interest, you can find others with that same interest
• People can hold a a conversation and make it real for crowds long after the media moves on (Richard uses the example Iranelection)
• You can't be a politician, a publisher, etc. in the way you used to 5 years ago. When people have choice, they compel changes like interactive content, choice and sharing of ideas (I wonder if that will impact schools, what with the lack of choice).
• Copyright is in flux - people can steam things they go to, creative commons allows sharing of ideas. Media is changing.

Will acknowledges that schools haven't changed but feels that schools will be compelled. Kids use the tools to connect socially (they are fine there without our help) and in interest-based ways. Will thinks that this is the place where there is a key role for us as educators. We know that connecting to others is very powerful and makes many of us uncomfortable.

Public is the new default. - Erick Schonfeld

Will talked about how most of the pictures of his daughter online are posted and tagged by someone else. We need to teach students to manage their reputations online (for those new to this idea, take a look Joyce Valenza's writing on the subject of digital footprints). Then he showed a map of those who read his blog from all over the world. He has nearly nearly 50,000 hits from the US alone, and over 5,000 from Canada. He says in his children's lives, there is only one reader, the teacher. He wants diversity of passionate listeners for every kid.

Now Will is repeated one of my favorite refrains, that we want our student's learning to be found and we need to teach them how to do it well. He is very negative about walled-gardens, although he is approaching the idea tangentially in this presentation. He is showing us how MIT's content is available on-line and just showed us the Khan academy online.

Will asks: "What changes will this sort of thing online?" He argues that Harvard became popular because it has the biggest library. He also notes that many of our professional learning around technology is misguided. He says we should stop teaching teachers how to use technology and start teaching them why to use them. This is also a favorite refrain of mine.

Will is saying how his kids are still waiting in school to be told what to learn, how to learn it and when to learn it. They don't get to choose how they show what they have learned. Then they come home and have complete freedom. He says this disconnect is a problem.

Now Will is making himself deeply unpopular by arguing wikipedia is a good source. He asked how many people teach kids to use wikipedia and I am one of the "12" who put their hands up. Will notes that all of us know our kids use wikipedia and then he shows all the errors from print texts. I agree that teaching kids how to back track wikipedia is a really important thing, but I think Will may have crossed over into a rant that is making the audience feel badly.

Creating Engaging Online Courses

Peggy Lawson is an instructional technology consultant from South East Cornerstone School Division. She shared her own reflextions in the area of developing online courses that are robust and provide a compelling reason to be engaged in their learning.

What does it mean to be in an online class? It started out as being mostly text-based. Basically, it was the old correspondance material posted to the internet. Peggy then posed the question, "What is Engaging?". Her philosophy on engagement is extremely close to the conversations that have been occuring in Saskatoon Public Schools. She links engagement closely with authentic learning.

Peggy lists a variety of challenges when creating an online course that is engaging. In comparison to post-secondary education, where there are teams of developers, in the K-12 system, the teacher is the developer. It is important to start with small steps then build onto the online course each time the teacher delivers the material.

Best practices to keep in mind include keeping in mind different learning styles and providing materials in a variety of ways. Peggy feels providing online office hours is an important support. Some suggestions are Skype conference calls, systems such as Adobe Connect, or even text messaging. It does, however, have to be manageable for the teacher.

Feedback is crutical for the online learner. This feedback may be written, through a video, or may take the form of an audio file. Marking up student work on a PDF or using the comment features of Word are options for written feedback. This session reminded me of Rolph Polan's presentation on using Acrobat to provide audio feedback to students (featured earlier on this blog). Jing is a free resource that can be used for video feedback. For audio feedback, Audacity is an excellent, free resource. Even a checklist, letting the student know that their assignments have been received is a great satisfier and lowers potential frustration levels associated with online courses.

Content delivery methods depend on whether a synchronous or asynchronous format will be used. In general, students prefer interactive activities as well as virtual tours.

Peggy shared a variety of uses of technology in transformative ways, leading to engaging environments. Complex examples included use of Adobe Connect but she also showed Powerpoint being used in transformative ways.
It was interesting how many of her discussion points paralleled Dan Shareski's presentation on the 10 Worst Practices in Educational Technology. Shareski's ten points were discussion points that existed within Peggy's presentation, when planning an engaging online course. An example is "gated" vs "open" environments and the pros & cons of each.

SETA might have misplaced their keys

I worked with the PD committee of the Educational Technology Consortium for a number of years and watched it gradually disappeared for a variety of reasons after I had left. SETA, the Saskatewan Educational Technology Association, appears to have replaced it. The board chair describes the main focuses as a hub for distance learning, infrastructure, and supporting effective use of educational technology in a variety of ways.

Part way through this session, I realized I had lost my keys. They have a hook on them and are usally attached to me, but I decided to go more professional and less janitorial today. I had no sooner realized they were gone than Scott emailed he had found them.

Ironically, before I had lost them, I was thinking about the keys to transformative uses of technology I learned about while researching for the old ETC. We learned a lot about how important it is to support professional learning and tie software to student outcomes. I was looking forward to hearing about how this young organization would address these things.

Then I got confused. The chair said the focus was on education, so membership does not include the stakeholders the ETC did, like STF and LEADS. They will offer training sessions, like one on Smart next Wed. and training sessions on Microsoft hardware and software. SETA mentions that you can email Shelley Lowes about IT sessions you are interested in.The presenting group was particularily excited about getting a province-wide Microsoft agreement. It will cost about $75.00 per student.


I must admit, I am concerned about the model SETA is moving forward with, because some key pins in the educational technology lock will not be turned given the key they have cut. It seems pretty focused on the business side and doesn't have teacher reps, which might make it difficult to keep a focus on the instructional side. They don't have a web site yet, but have been talking about high value targets for software licencing. They gave us a handouts for a variety of types of software they are exploring based on suggestions from technical coordinators in school divisions. Sorry, no links, so I can't post those for you, but Adobe, Atomic Learning and Inspiration are some of the big names offering bulk purchasing. This whole presentation was mostly focused on bulk purchasing, so I wasn't the intended audience. My focus is always on what student outcomes we want and supports we need to help educators get them there. This was not really the focus of the presentation.

On the upside, Donna and Scott found my keys, which I lost when they fell out of my jacket in Dean's session. Since Scott already emailed me and I'll get them back before I head home - I barely even had time to worry. I'll bike home in peace. As I am getting ready to leave, a member of the audience pointed out my exact concerns about all stakeholders being involved. Maybe this will help SETA find its keys, the way Scott and Donna helped me find mine.

Dean's Debate

After Dean's big ISTE win, it is unsurprising to see that the room is packed for his session. Dean works as a digital learning consultant and his presentation reflects his curriculum focus, and I am a regular reader of his blog.

One of the things I like about Dean's presentations is that he is one of the few presenters I see where I think the slides are powerful. He often has a simple image and a sentence or few words for each of his ideas. Another strength is being responsive to where the audience is going. That will be a challenge for him this time, since this room has twice as many people in it as it really fit. Dean's presentation is about 10 technologies that are often misused. Here is his list:

1. Smartboards (Dylan Wiliam, Hattie etc. agree with Dean on no educational impact) Smartboards are used because they are easy and support current practice. Dean's question: Is easy a goal of technology?
2. Powerpoint - Dean's question: Why do we so many bad Powerpoints? What strategies have been effective in eliminating bad PPTs? Answers of the group: People try to read off the presentation and don't think about why they are doing what they are doing. JAIME
3. Digital Camera - Dean's question: Are they used for more than just taking pictures? Answer: We don't know how to use images to tell a powerful story or as a tool for feedback. Dean notes that lack of standardization around editing and optimizing images is also a barrier.
4. Walled Gardens - Dean asked when a password protected space is necessary and when it hurts the learning. The group discussed security issues and advantages of safety and the loss of opportunity when connectivism is prevented. We discussed how students are online and need to be taught how to do it well and safely. We also talked about how sharing is important, but people are worried about copyright.
5. Computer Class - Dean's question: Do we need the special place for computers? Interesting. I love the Hookanson and Hooper article that compares computer class to segregation and Dean asked if we need pencil labs. Ah, shades of Rick Schwier. The group noted that there are some strengths including not looking for wireless, things like video editing that require solid machines etc.
6. Cell phones - Dean asks if we are not using computing power we could. As schools, we don't know what to do with them. There has to be a mid-point between banning and abuse.
7. Keyboarding - Dean's question: Do we want to spend our computer instruction time learning to type in a certain way?

The three we didn't get to: Drill and Kill vs Games, Searching (is still bolean as best), and audience choice (they suggested printing and hand editing, texting etc.).

It was interesting to watch the audience want to defend practices. There were strong advocates for each of Dean's 10, and really good discussion. I think it is great for us to do some critical thinking on the subject. My favorite session so far since it was a debate. I am so predictable .

Ruo on probeware and motion capture

The second session I attended at Summit was Leslie Ruo's session on probeware and motion capture. I have seen Leslie present before - he was the SITL when I started teaching in Saskatoon at Walter Murray Collegiate.

Leslie prepare a set of resources that are really helpful for learning to use the Vernier probes. We have some sample videos, labs and other resources, in addition to links and docs from a variety of sources. I think I would have found it helpful if Leslie talked a bit more about what why we do this sort of capture with students and what type of thinking skills we are trying to promote (like what Bernajean Porter was talking about this morning re headware and hardware).

One of the things that strikes me about the probeware is the fact that students can easily visualize things like slope and compare multiple data sets. Students can spend much less time gathering data and much more time understanding what it means. I think that is a good thing. Gathering data is an important part of lab work in the Sciences, but sometimes it is easy for gathering to take so much time that students have little left to use in the analysis. This strikes a nice compromise.

I liked having the time to play with multiple videos and really enjoyed what Leslie shared about his results in his class using standardized measures like the TUG/K.

The second thing Leslie showed us was how to use the motion sensor to collect data. We learned how to set the time, and collect the data. I was walking as a part of the data collection with my partner, Karen. She accused me of drinking, then Leslie helped us figure out we needed to have me walk towards the go-motion probe. We got to play with the rest of the resources on the DVD for the remainder of the session.

IT Summit starts with Porter

I am IT Summit again this year, and am looking forward to the key notes in particular. I am presenting tomorrow on the subject of creating powerful presentations - yup, no stress with that topic. It is probably Jay's fault that we picked that topic. Some resources for the presentation include the Prezi, some Sharetabs and a handout, but I am hoping the talking is the interesting part.

The first keynote today in Bernajean Porter, who is speaking which technology practices are high-yielding. Porter starts with the back channel link, gives us the wiki link, and then moves on the examples. Her first is a sample of high school Science, and we are supposed to score it low, medium or high for its rigour (boy, I hate that word. It sounds like the idea has died). The room is pretty equally divided. I thought there was no really content and was worried that I missed something. Turns out no - Porter's point is that how we use technology is much more important than what technologies we are using.

Porter talks about the headware, which is the deep and enduring learning we want for students. She notes that the hardware changes but the headware stays the same.

Porter goes on to provide a series of examples to prove that technology, especially hardware and software, does not impact achievement just because you have it. She says certain focal points(she doesn't name them yet) actually impact life long learning. Porter notes that the biggest deficit in student understanding around technology is the ability to find credible and reliable sources. To applause of a TL in the audience, she comments that teacher-librarians are one of the 3 key indicators of student competence.

I think I would have appreciated more examples about how powerful instructional strategies are leveraging the tools. She gave one example of writing, which is one I am familiar with. Porter talks about how integration is just re-framing traditional teaching. A pod cast is an on-line lecture, an old story reframed. She argues we need new stories.

I first encountered Porter's HEAT spectrum last year, and it fits well with ISTE standards and the Technology Infusion Matrix I have been using with the technology grants this year. Ultimately, all of them require constructivist pedagogy and that is the place where I keep struggling. Helping teachers change pedagogy is the most challenging thing I have ever done in my career (check out Peggy Ertmer's writing on second order barriers) and using new technologies just makes it more complicated.

I really enjoyed the Flashlight activity where we categorized our things happening in classrooms. It was good because we were all engaged in thinking and interacting, and it helped us move to deeper understanding. I think I made be able to build on our SITLs and TLs hearing this in our session in May on Planning and Instructional support.