Final Technical Presentation

For my final presentation I changed my topic from how solar cells function to proper rowing technique. I think this was a good change because I had already talked about solar power in Germany for my baseline speech and I felt like I needed to change the topic to make things more interesting. I definitely enjoyed preparing for this speech because I know a lot about rowing and have lots of experience doing it. I was really happy with my presentation. Rowing, especially rowing terminology can be a little tricky to those who don't know much about it. The part of powerpoint where I talked about the stroke and broke down each part of it by showing pictures was a really good idea. In each picture, I try to emphasize that the main objective in rowing is to maximize the positive force and minimize the negative force.I drew block arrows, angles, etc. to help illustrate this idea. I thought the best part was the video of U.S. men's Olympic 8 at Athens in 2004. After looking at each part of the rowing stroke, it's nice to see it being all put together . There's nothing better than watching the men's 8 row down the course. I though my hook for the presentation was pretty good and relevant. Mentioning that the Vikings longship was the prototype for the modern day crew shell was pretty interesting. As always, I need to work on feeling more comfortable in front of the audience. By that, I mean I need to start eventually moving in front of the audience instead of behind the podium. I hope I'll be able to do this by the end of the semester. At times I spoke a little fast and seemed to be a little nervous. During the presentation I looked back at the slides a little bit instead of keeping my eye contact on the audience. Overall it was a good presentation but there are some recurring themes from previous presentations that I still need to work on.

Practice Technical Speech

I thought I did an OK job on the practice technical. My slides were pretty good but I thought my topic was a little complicated (how solar cells work) and I should have simplified it more for the audience. I spent a lot of time explaining the chemistry of P[ositive] and N[egative] junctions which definitely confused some of the audience. In retrospect I probably should have spent more time talking about the basic principles of how PV cells work. A better approach would have been to talk about the basic function of PV cells, then mention the implications of improving the efficiency of these cells. Because solar energy is a vast and abundant source of renewable energy, improving the efficiency of solar cells would mean more sunlight could be converted into energy, thus making solar energy more competitive with non-renewable sources like fossil fuels. In terms of my presentation skills, I spoke a little fast and looked back at my slides a little too often. Luckily this is only the practice speech so I have time to make corrections before the next presentation. I liked how immediately following every practice speech, everyone received both negative and positive criticism. One finds out what worked and what didn't which was very helpful. I especially enjoyed the part when each of us met with another peer and redid our speeches based on the feedback. In my case, for example Adeboye reminded me not to gesticulate so much with my hands. He helped me by grabbing by hand and didn’t let it move.

Baseline Speech

I was happy with the way the baseline speech turned out. My slides did a good job complementing my presentation about solar energy in Germany. Rather than containing loads of text, the slides were relatively simple, clear and had good graphs/diagrams. In particular, I think the slide with the pie graphs showing the amount of solar electricity that Germany produced in 2008 versus the U.S. really "drove home" the main message of my presentation. It showed just how far ahead Germany is compared to the rest of the industrialized world in terms of renewable energy. I think this slide put things in prespective for the whole class. I was definitely comfortable with the information I was presenting which is a result of my preparation in advance. Obviously after looking at my video there are definitely things I need to work on. One of those is working on my body posture during the presentation. There are times during the video when I'm leaning over the podium. Needless to say, this seems a little awkward. After the title slide, there was a point where stumbled with my words which gave off a sense of nervousness. I also spoke quickly at times which might have been another sign of anxiety. Like I've mentioned in my previous blogs, controlling my nerves will continue to be on of my major goals throughout the semester. Another thing I noticed in my video was that I looked at my notecards a lot. I think I knew the material well enough that I didn't need to do that. Unless the cards contain just a few main points to serve as a remainder of what's on each slide, they will otherwise be confusing. The eye contact should be directed towards the audience and not the cards.

Presentation Zen chapter five

For this presentation, I thought I did a good job sticking close to the guidelines of the assignment of making it "personal." I compared a past experience to the teachings of chapter 5 using lots of personal items like photos, etc. The hook was OK but could have been better. Asking the audience whether any of them had been Alaska wasn't really a good way to captivate them. I don't think the relationship between my trip and the ideas presented in chapter 5 was immediately obvious either. I spent too much time on certain slides(i.e., the one where I define analog) whereas I should have spent more time explaining how backpacking relates to preparing for a presentation. That particular slide had too much text which confused the audience a little bit, forcing them to read and pay attention to me at the same time. Although I had prepared well for the presentation, I still gave off some nervous body language. My voice clearly quivers at times and I speak too fast, both signs of nervousness. I had somewhat of an awkward stance behind the podium which distracted the audience a little bit. By the end of the semester it is my goal to move my way from behind the podium to standing in front of the audience. However, I know this won't happen over night. It will take lots of practice but I'm confident it can happen. Because I'm not a natural public speaker, I feel like I need to practice more for the presentations to gain confidence and to become more comfortable. I know the material well, but it doesn't necessarily come off that way in front of the audience. I think the key to improving my presentation skills is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Over time it will remove the the tics of "Um" and "you know" and establish comfortability and confidence over time.

Since I wasn't able to present last Wednesday due to a lack of time, I'd like to discuss how I'm planning to prepare for the upcoming class period. I will have to present twice this Wednesday, once on solar energy in Germany as well as on chapter three of Presentation Zen. Needless to say, the key to success for each one will be to prepare well in advance so I will have lots of time to practice. Keeping the major "lessons" of Presentation Zen in mind will also be important. One of these so-called lessons is to keep the slide content as simple as possible. This means keeping the bullet points and excess information to a minimum. I don't want to confuse or lose the attention of my audience. I want to make sure that each slide is relevant to the central message of my presentation. To check for relevancy, I will ask myself the question: how does this apply to the central message? If each of my slides passes this "test," I will know that the slide show is "doing its job" as an aid to the story I'm trying to tell. The "elevator test" from chapter 3 will be a good way to check for the clarity of the core message; if the main message isn't clear after 30-45 seconds, then I know I've got to make some changes to my slides. As long as I stick to these guidelines, I think I will do a fairly decent job.