AEP reflection

Final reflection on my Presentation Skill

a) What are the most valuable things you learned about the process of preparing and delivering presentations?

I've learnt how it is important to manage time appropriately and for doing that, we need to be prepared and well-rehearsed. However, writing the whole script may not always the best way but to have a bullet-form notes for checking key points may help me speak making eye-contact.
Another thing that I think is valuable is the visuals that are comprehensible and also impressive. I used to make powerpoint slides that are easy to see, easy to understand but usually boring and too neat. Through the course, I came to notice that visuals really counts and without good and impressive visuals, even if the content is great, it will not remain in audience's mind.

b) In what presentation skill areas do you feel you have made progress or improved your awareness?

I think that the process of preparation and rehearsal was the skill that I have improved the most. I have never done such a thing as a proper rehearsal before presentation. It was even fine without doing it beforehand but I now know that it really makes a difference in terms of time management, confidence, fluency and a comprehensible flow of the presentation.
Also, I was more careful about choosing images to show and my visual making skills improved. I am now asking myself why I need images, for what purpose, how do I present it to increase its effects.

c) What points do you want to improve further in your future presentations? How can you improve those?

I would like to speak more fluently and try to really "convey my message". In order to do this, I will have to really know what I am talking about and for that, asking for feedbacks from friends or teachers and also to rehearse it many times is important.
Also, Q&A management is another thing that I need to work on more. I have to be aware of the fact that I tend to talk for too long and in the end, I forget what the question was acually asking. Being more careful in catching the very "point" of the question and focus on answering that is my future goal.

Presenation #3 "ICU"

International Christian University
"Harmony in Diversity" through Liberal Arts

First 1-12 slides

Last 13-24 slides


a) The process of preparation and rehearsal
Group:
since our schedule did not match very well and all of us were very busy, we could not have done a group rehearsal outside of class that much. Though we were good in dividing up the work and also to comment on each other's ppt slides in order to further improve our cohesiveness and logical flow of the presentation.
Individual:
I re-made my slides over and over so that they can be more effective and comprehensible. I rehearsed twice with notes (and not scprit this time) and I were able to find problems in logical flow and also the time management before the actual presentation.

b) The effectiveness of the introduction
Group:
We thought of beginning the presentation with something that can differentiate us from other groups. While other groups are using money for buying things and providing them to those who need them, we focused more of the importance of "People/Human resource" to give a certain impact that we are looking at problems from different perspective. The introduction of our key phrase "harmony in diversity" was also a good idea in making it easy to understand.
Individual:
I tried to start it with asking the audience a question of "what we need to solve issues". Considering that we tend to focus on the actual objects that we might need for solving them but we make it clear that PEOPLE who use them are what is ESSENTIAL in solving the issues.

c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body
Group:
We talked about the entire flow of the presentation and we think that we successfully made it cohesive and comprehensible. It was hard to achieve persuasiveness for raising funds on "education" which seems unrelated to those issues directly and we needed to make it clear how our Liberal Arts education was actually "vital" in solving the problem. Providing statistical information and more objective information (reliable source) was difficult compared to other topics.
Individual:
I think I successfully made it clear that Liberal Arts education is indeed important and are actually related to problem solving and harmony in diversity.

d) The conclusion and Q&A
Group:
Since we did not do a complete reharsal together, transition from conclusion and Q&A was a little awkward. It was hard to answer questions in a group presentation because we may have different views on each and that may lead to confusion.
Individual:
I forgot to confirm the question that was asked. I have this bad habit of answering for too long so I may have to be careful on that.

e) Use of visuals
Group:
At the beginning, our powerpoint slides were full of words and ineffective images but in the end, we made use of effective images, graphs, neat and easy to read sentences, and also metaphor.
Individual:
I took such a long time on working on the visuals and I tried to make it look professional and trustworthy. For the first 3 or 4 slides, I was seeking to visually impress the audience and really catch their attention.

f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture
Group:
We were more or less fine with eye-contact and noone was reading off the script too much. Gesture was reserved and calm.
Individual:
I tried to make eye-contact more than the last presentation and I managed to do that though it was hard to look at everyone's faces and I have this tendancy to talk to the powerpoint slides. Gesture and posture was fine.

g) Use of voice
Group:
Our voice was clear and natural but maybe sometimes lacked fluency. We could have rehearsed more in order to solve this problem. We need to be more fluent and persuasive.
Individual:
I tried to speak clearly with appropriate volume. I was fluent enough to convey meanings without problems. Emphasizing key words were effective.

h) Other points (as you like)
This topic was very difficult to make it persuasive since it is not something that is evidently problematic such as HIV/AIDS and Haiti. Although it was difficult, we tried to logically construct our presentation so that the audience will understand the importance of Liberal Arts education.

Powerpoint for Presentation #2

{SCRIPT}

INTRODUCTION (1 min 10sec)
- There are times when I am faced with too many tasks to be done in a given time that seems too short for all of them to be completed on time, I feel anxious losing confidence, and I wish if someone could just pull me out of this doomed situation. People are not that strong, so sometimes we fail to resist the temptation of doing something fun rather than working, and procrastinate the tasks until it seems too late. That happens to me a lot. But in many casaes, the most regrettable thing, more than anything, is the fact that I waste so much time on regretting, thinking about “what I didn’t/couldn’t” do and cannot move on. So today, I will give you a suggestion, mainly based on my personal experience (which works for me), on how to get yourself moving on when you feel absolutely hopeless but really need to get things done. There are three points that I want to make through this presentation, first, EXPLODE your emotion, second, EXAMINE the situation, and third, TRUST yourself.

EXPLODE(2min/50sec)
- Now my first point is to “let your emotion EXPLODE”. This step was meant to get all of your negative emotion that arises no matter how hard you try to suppress (such as anxiety, anger, frustration) out of your mind, so that you can clear your mental state that was keeping you away from moving forward. In doing this, the important point is to find someone who “agrees” and “accept” your feeling, because if it was not accepted, it does not go away. If you really cannot find anyone who can listen to you, you can try writing it down on a sheet of paper and look at them objectively and become the one to accept it yourself!

EXAMINE (3min/1min)
- Once you have “EXPLODED” and cleared your mind, now it is time to “EXAMINE” the situation and try to find what you can do from now on. The situation includes the “task” itself and your “current capacity” and these two must be examined so that you can narrow down the gap between “what to do” and “what you can do” now. Suppose that you have a bag of certain size, which represents your capacity, and there is a huge object (something like fish?), which in turn represents the task, not even a part of it wouldn’t fit. However, if you break them down into pieces and take ones that are most important, some of them will fit at least. Even if you have the same amount of task and capacity, the way you treat it will affect how much you can actually do. So, put aside what you “cannot” do while you are working on what you “can” do!

TRUST (4min/1min)
- Now my last point is the most difficult but most important thing: to “TRUST yourself”. Once you have narrowed down the gap between “what to do” and “what you can do” in the “EXAMINE” section, it is time for you to trust that you can do whatever you chose to do. Since too much doubt on your ability increases stress and prevent you from concentrating on the task, trusting yourself becomes a key in drawing out your potential fully and doing the “BEST” you can. We need to be aware of the fact that the capacity itself fluctuates a lot depending on the surrounding environment, and we tend to lose confidence along the way, but in that case, go back to the EXAMINE process and figure out what other options you may have.

CONCLUSION (5min/1min)
- So we have looked at three points of EXPLODE, EXAMINE and TRUST and I want to make a point that doing everything perfectly is not necessarily more valuable than doing your best. It is very important to complete all tasks on time, though when it becomes difficult and you feel stuck, doing whatever you can do is also important in these cases. And do not worry too much if you fail to follow these steps because it requires some practices to examine the situation with accuracy and only experience can tell what to do. Even if you fail, try to reflect on yourself and analyse your characteristics of your working style so that you can make improvements for next time. Keeping these in mind, when you are hopeless but willing to move on, think of these three steps EXPLODE, EXAMINE, TRUST and develop your own techniques of dealing with doomed situation step by step.

Thank you for listening and since we seem to have 1 to 2 minutes left for Q&A, if you have any questions please raise your hand.

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{Reflective Comments}
My main focus of this presentation was to become "well-prepared" with several times of rehearsals though the reality was that I only had two times of rehearsals and I could not memorise or get used to the script reading. As a result, the amount of eye-contact was lessened and I fell into the trap of "reading" instead of "presenting".
At the same time, reduction of unecessary body movement was done through holding the script and also, time management became successful through rehearsals using the scripts and giving specific time range for each section. In terms of visuals, it seems that it helped the audience to understand my points better but could have been improved so that they can give more impression to them.
The organisation of the presentation, I thought, was good so "eye-contact" and "attractive visuals" will be my main focus for making improvements.

{Goals for Future Presentations}
For future presentations, I would like to practice more if I were to use script for the entire presentation or I can make more simplified notes (bullet-form etc...) so that I will not have to look at the script for too long.
For the visuals, I will try to use something that not only provides help in comprehension but also attracts audience's attention and leave more impression on them.

Plan for Presentation #2

Presentation #2 Topic "How to Enjoy Studying"

-Purpose: Provide tips and strategies to help university students to motivate themselves and enjoy studying.
-Audience: 8 University students and a University professor
-Logistics: 5 minutes time limitation. Use powerpoint with key words.

1. Preparation/Rehearsal
I brainstorm by thinking about what made me think that studying is actually fun and write them out on a sheet of paper. Since I run out of time last time, I will focus more on one specific topic and rehearse several times using a stopwatch timing myself.

2. Content / Overall Impression
Provide tips and strategies that makes studying enjoyable and less stressful. I hope that even someone who tends to dislike studying may stop and think about what studying means to them.

3. Voice
Confident and clear voice. Cheerful voice may lead audience to believe that I am enjoying study and make my presentation more credible and convincing.

4. Body Language
Less hand movement but sometimes refer to powerpoint. Since my topic does not include actual handling of objects, I try to limit my movement.

5. Visuals
Images related to relaxation and stress may help people image how they could be free from stressful days of studying.

ACTP Analysis

Video: "Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge"



-Attention-getting
Her use of the word "contagious" is effective in catching audience's attention especially in the time of H1N1 as she mentions. We wonder what she is talking about as being "contagious" and encourage students to listen carefully. She Also asks questions that we all might have such as "Why only them" are considered remarkable.

- Credibility
The way she speaks gives an impression of sincerity and confidence though no clear information
that makes her credible is given explicitly.

- Topic
She makes her topic very easy to understand by creating the word "I can bug" and how it could possibly be learnt systematically.

- Preview
She does not actually give a preview of her contents that may follow and audience is given only a vague ideas on what she is going to talk about.

Presentation No.1 Reflections and Self-Analysis

1. Purpose/Message
-Reflection: I tried to convey how philosophical thinking may have something to do with our life and I made an attempt to connect it to our daily life situation such as TV news and university choice though three minutes was not enough to totally convey what I intended to say.
-Ideas for Improvement: I could have focused more on one or two of the aspects rather than giving many examples and explaining each of them in detail. Logistics should be considered more carefully with several times of rehearsal.

2. Voice Usage
-Reflection: I think the rate and tone of my speech was fairly appropriate at the beginning but as I went on, my voice shows some signs of nervousness due to the time limitation. My words were sometimes unclear and I lost fluency in the middle of the presentation.
-Ideas for improvement: I could rehearsed several times to manage time more effectively so that I do not have to worry too much about the time and also for making my speech more fluent and easy to hear.

3. Body Language
-Reflection: I tried to look calm but my hands move around rather too much. I succeeded in making eye-contancts to a certain extent and also referred to powerpoint by pointing at it .
-Ideas for improvement: Since nervousness lead me to move my hands too much, rehearsing it and feeling confident may help in reducing my hand movement that are unecessary.

4. Visuals
- Reflection: I thought that my text information was clear and conprehensible though I was not able to make full use of images because I did not have enough time to see audiences' reaction in detail.
- Ideas for improvement: I could choose one or two of the images and take more time on each of them. I may be able to choose more appropriate and easy to understand images so that audience can follow the presentation.

5. Preparation & rehearsal process

- Reflection: I did not have time to rehearse the presentation beforehand and as a result, my presentation became too long and disorganised.
- Ideas for Improvement: I need to spend more time on looking for appropriate images and also to rehearse before the actual presentation.