Saturday, November 14, 2009

Assertion-Evidence Structure

As a result of your examination of the website linked below, what are some of your insights about the ways in which this proposed PowerPoint structure differs from the strategies your have used yourself or that you have seen peers using in PowerPoint presentations in the past? In what ways do you think some of these ideas might help you to deliver more effective presentations? Are there any suggestions on this site that you don't think would work for the delivery of your material, specifically the research you are trying to explain in your technical project? In your examples, please be as specific as possible.

Here is the website address (the same as in the email I sent you):

http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/slides.html

15 comments:

  1. The strategy that is presented in the link that was provided does indeed accomplish its own stated goal. That goal is to challenge the Microsoft default of having a Subject and a bullet list. The "assertion-evidence structure" seems to be a format that can effectively aid a presenter for a specific research-related purpose. As far as my history with power point is concerned, I really haven't committed myself to a particular style. The quality and structure of my power point presentations depend solely how much time that I have to create them. I have been guilty of using the Microsoft default a time or two, but I have also been able to make and decently present very high quality power point presentations. I think that the ideas on this website will help me see a new perspective and consider my audience in a different way. Some of the slides provided excellent methods of showing comparisons (specifically the shark slide seems effective). I think that all of the methods and slides that I saw on the website could be applied to my research if I though about it enough, but I would like to avoid using any single method as a crutch. There are some side formats that I would like to use right now because they I have not yet used that kind of format.
    Typically when I watch power points created by my peers, I almost always end up seeing the standard Microsoft Format. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. It is easy to forget that Power Point is only a tool. This means to me that a good presentation depends primarily on the presentor and nothing else. If you are a powerful, dynamic speaker who knows his/her material and can interact with your audience, you will be able to give a wonderful presentation regardless of what power point structure you have.

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  2. In the Past most of the presentation I and most of my pers gave eather used the defult set up stile that was dicused in the video on the site or did not use slides at all. The slides in my case actully did serev more as a quck card for me rather then a ectention of the presentation. My preveus imprestion of slides is that thay were ment to be littel more than a guide of dicusstion for the presentation. Using the stile presented on the web site however I beleve I will be able to use fewer slides and talk more about each.

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  3. The proposed PowerPoint structure differs significantly from the structure that I have used. I have always structured my PowerPoint presentations as general outlines of what I will be talking about during my presentation. I have also included information that would be difficult to communicate verbally during the presentation, such as lengthy quotes and graphics. In the proposed structure, however, the outline element is left out of the presentation. The slides simply provide information about main points and present a visual platform for the presentation without excessively echoing the verbal part of the presentation. There is also a bigger emphasis on how the information that is presented in each slide ties into the “big picture” of the project.
    These ideas seem very useful. By presenting only main points and useful images in my PowerPoint slides, my presentations will probably be much less dull. They will also most likely keep more of the audience’s attention because the audience members will not be able to read each slide and then “zone out” while I am verbally repeating the same information they just read. Also, I think the suggested format will make it easier to organize the information in my presentation in a more interesting and logical way.
    In terms of the presentation for my technical project, I’m not sure that the heavy use of pictures will be very relevant to my topic of dance-step mastery in children of various ages. Since my research did not involve anything that could be meaningfully recorded using photographs, I will have to rely on tables, graphs, and perhaps rather generic images in order to keep my presentation visually interesting.

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  4. In the past, my peers and I have stuck to the default PowerPoint for presentations and I have also done presentations that look something like the assertion-evidence model that they talk about.
    My presentation wasn't consistently like the model throughout, but it got the job done. It could have more effective if I was more like the model I think.
    The assertion-evidence structure does seem to be a bit more effective for presenting material than the default does. The visual evidence is, I think, the attractive part of the strategy. The sample slide has enough information to explain what the pictures are and why they are there, but not too much to where a person won’t read it. Some people put too much written information on the slides which tend to make the power point more boring and less effective. Sometimes people set up a power point like an outline. This is helpful to the presenter, but doesn’t really assist in the ability for the audience to understand the content. I like that the assertion-evidence model stresses to make slides that will assist in helping the audience understand the content. This site tells me not to put too much written stuff on the slides and don’t just put it in an outline format. If I did a power point I would really try to apply the advice of this site to make my presentation flow better, make it more interesting to my audience, and hopefully make the content clear to my audience. I think this site does a pretty good job for giving advice to make a good power point.

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  5. Many of the powerpoint presentations that I have seen include information that the presenter simply reads off of the slide. The audience would easily be able to read the slides and understand the main points of the presentation.
    The website gives ways to make power point presentations less boring and more effective. Like the website says, the presentation should add to the presentation instead of providing talking points for the presenter. This tip will help me when I am giving my presentation to keep my audience interested. Instead of making a presentation with a title and bullets, I will include pictures and demonstrations of what I am discussing in the presentation.

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  6. I agree with the site's assessment of PowerPoint. People do rely too much on graphics and often end up simply reading off their slides. Most of the suggestions seem like they would be effective for our presentations, although not entirely necessary.

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  8. Information on biomimetics is awesome! I did not know that about sharks or submarines.

    I would almost always use the default slide selection, i.e. a headline and a bullet list and read off the slides almost word for word. Having a handout can help sometimes.

    I found that the link with the outline they provided was very helpful. It made sure you were talking not just reading.

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  9. I agree with the problems labeled within the website's view of "modern" Power Point presentations. It seems more people are using Power Point presentations to remind themselves of the talking points needing to be addressed and discussed. These presentations fail in regards to helping the audience better understand the material at hand.

    Using the correct Power Point presentation structure would greatly help the audience comprehend what is being stated. The ability to clearly present a technical report to a non-technical audience is very important.

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  10. Personally, i have never used a powerpoint for a presentation. Overall, all the templates i saw on that website were very similar to the powerpoint presentations i have seen my professors and peers use. Indeed,they seems to be pretty standard; one slide almost always include: an explanation of the topic being discuss on the slide, with a picture or graph that illustrates the explanation. Nevertheless, the organisation of the informations vary depending on the topic being discussed and the presenters.This website teaches ways to organise a powerpoints presentation, to make it visually appealing, and logically understandable.
    The ideas provided in this website can definetely help me to organise information in a powerpoint presentation. As of now, i haven't decided on the method i will use to present my report.Most likely, i won't be using a powerpoint because i am not very proficient in building powerpoints yet and the time allocated for this assignement is very short for me to learn and put one together. I am tinking about keeping it simple with the use of pictures to illustrate the informations i will be talking about.
    Nevertheless, if i were to use a powerpoint i wouldn't follow the Geoscience Education (January 2007) example format because it is not visually appealing to me and requires a lot of oral explanation to make it understandable. I would like mine to be as self explanatory as it could be.

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  13. I agree with Shane and other authors above. I have attended many different powerpoint lectures, and have given several myself. It is very easy for a presenter to use Power Point as a crutch rather than a presentation aid.

    I appreciate the fact that the site is proposing a new layout instead of just the old title bullet layout. However, I think ultimately the success or failure of a presentation depends wholly on the presenter. Yes, it is nice to introduce a new layout, but it is just as easy to fall into the same habit of simply reading off the slide. Conversly, it is possible to have an engaging powerpoint presentation using the title/bullet layout. It all depends on the ability of the presenter.

    I plan on using Power Point to present my final project to the class. Power Point is familiar enough to my audience (the class) that it will aid in my presentation. However, I will try to design my visual aids as a supplement for my audience rather than as a memory-aid tool.

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  14. Note: The deleted comments above by The Kite Runner were mine. I was having trouble with my account.

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  15. The heuristics provided near the bottom of the article provide useful insight into the usefulness of a Powerpoint presentation. Too often such presentations are used without regard to their strengths as a form of communication. The standard approach of information dumped onto a slide is nicely circumvented by using the rationale given in this article.

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