Last Friday, I co-presented at the Michigan Library Association's Applied Technology and Trends conference held at the UM Hatcher Graduate Library. This was a great experience, where I had the opportunity to create a presentation with a colleague with whom I'd never presented and practice my presentation skills.
On June 8, I will be presenting with a different colleague on a different topic at the eCornucopia conference at nearby Oakland University. I'm realizing that preparing for and presenting is a great experience, but that it also takes a good deal of time. Creating a presentation outline, getting that onto slides, making the slides more creative, practicing, and getting all of the collaborative pieces in place is a great way to learn and prepare, but it is also very consuming.
I'm finding similarities between presenting and instructing in the sense that there is always more to learn and that the presentation can always be improved. Light-hearted comments during the presentation can illicit positive or no response; attending to those is important if the presentation is going to be given again. Audience response at the end, and the amount of questions asked can provide clues into what would be better to focus on or what was particularly interesting to participants.
It's these observations I'll take as I move into my June 8 presentation. The conference session covers creativity and drive (our power words) and so we better make our presentation creative, and interactive. These are the new challenges I'll face while preparing for this conference.
Exciting and time-consuming... a good balance to have as I begin to prepare for the next phase of my educational and professional journey as August nears...
Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
The Biggest Presentation of My Life
If you've been reading, you know it's been a busy few weeks after teaching two Enriching Scholarship sessions last week, and preparing for what I'm calling the biggest presentation of my life this past Tuesday. Oh, and there's the MLA Technology and Trends Conference presentation tomorrow.
But, this week's post will focus on the biggest presentation of my life. The presentation was the culmination of my 18-month internship experience at the University of Michigan Library as the University Library Associate in the Knowledge Navigation Center. More specifically, the 15-minute presentation discussed my second year project at the Detroit Center where I helped set up meetings, created a Library Research Guide, and laid the groundwork for the collaborative initiative between the UM Library and the Detroit Center.
I have never worked so hard on a presentation. To be honest, for most class presentations, I'd outline my presentation in a Google Doc, then copy, paste and edit the text into PowerPoint. I'd maybe add an image or two, but then I'd read it over, practice maybe once, and give a decent presentation. However, since this was what I considered to be the biggest presentation of my life, I did quite a bit more work, and I think it paid off.
First, I worked to find images that represented my ideas so that I could decrease the amount of text, or remove it all together. This was both fun and meaningful, as I realized that a picture can be worth 1000 words, and that the words were more beneficial to my remembering what to say, than to the audience. Consequently, I realized that if I practiced enough, I didn't need the words on the screen to remind me what to say. What a revelation that was....
Secondly, I practiced. I practiced alone, in front of others -- edited -- alone again -- edited -- one-on-one -- edited -- and then had my supervisor review my presentation -- and edited again. Lots and lots of reviewing, tweaking, editing. And I was still nervous! I had notes printed below my slides, but.... when I got in front of the 60+ library staff members, I found I knew what I was talking about. Not only did I work on the project for 15 or so weeks (and thus, knew what I'd done) but the countless hours I put into the presentation had caused me to know my stuff. Nervous at first, I found that by the end of the short presentation and during the Q & A, I was comfortable speaking and answering questions from the audience.
It was a great lesson learned that putting the greatest amount of work into the biggest presentation of my life was a good idea. And I learned that its much more fun for me, and constructive to the audience, if I add images and edit both the ideas and structure of the presentation. Finally, and this lesson - no matter how many times I learn it - is most important to me... the work is never done and I can always improve what I'm doing. And that is relevant for anything.
You can check out the presentation here, on my website (it's the first bullet).
But, this week's post will focus on the biggest presentation of my life. The presentation was the culmination of my 18-month internship experience at the University of Michigan Library as the University Library Associate in the Knowledge Navigation Center. More specifically, the 15-minute presentation discussed my second year project at the Detroit Center where I helped set up meetings, created a Library Research Guide, and laid the groundwork for the collaborative initiative between the UM Library and the Detroit Center.
I have never worked so hard on a presentation. To be honest, for most class presentations, I'd outline my presentation in a Google Doc, then copy, paste and edit the text into PowerPoint. I'd maybe add an image or two, but then I'd read it over, practice maybe once, and give a decent presentation. However, since this was what I considered to be the biggest presentation of my life, I did quite a bit more work, and I think it paid off.
First, I worked to find images that represented my ideas so that I could decrease the amount of text, or remove it all together. This was both fun and meaningful, as I realized that a picture can be worth 1000 words, and that the words were more beneficial to my remembering what to say, than to the audience. Consequently, I realized that if I practiced enough, I didn't need the words on the screen to remind me what to say. What a revelation that was....
Secondly, I practiced. I practiced alone, in front of others -- edited -- alone again -- edited -- one-on-one -- edited -- and then had my supervisor review my presentation -- and edited again. Lots and lots of reviewing, tweaking, editing. And I was still nervous! I had notes printed below my slides, but.... when I got in front of the 60+ library staff members, I found I knew what I was talking about. Not only did I work on the project for 15 or so weeks (and thus, knew what I'd done) but the countless hours I put into the presentation had caused me to know my stuff. Nervous at first, I found that by the end of the short presentation and during the Q & A, I was comfortable speaking and answering questions from the audience.
It was a great lesson learned that putting the greatest amount of work into the biggest presentation of my life was a good idea. And I learned that its much more fun for me, and constructive to the audience, if I add images and edit both the ideas and structure of the presentation. Finally, and this lesson - no matter how many times I learn it - is most important to me... the work is never done and I can always improve what I'm doing. And that is relevant for anything.
You can check out the presentation here, on my website (it's the first bullet).
Friday, May 11, 2012
Enriching Scholarship: A Transformative Week for Instruction and Reflection
Before I started writing this, I reviewed my post about last year's Enriching Scholarship session. Just a quick review, Enriching Scholarship is a, "week of free workshops, discussions, and seminars has become an annual
event each May for instructional faculty and staff, and showcases over
120 sessions that address the role technology plays in fostering
engaging and effective teaching, learning, and research"(http://www.teachtech.umich.edu).
Last year, I considered teaching The New Basics: Computing 101 to be my first official instructional experience. I wrote that after the session, we realized we needed to tweak the workshop because there was too much content for too little time. So in between last year and this year, my co-instructor and I taught a Web Basics class, which went pretty well. This year for Enriching Scholarship, however, we decided to not only teach The New Computer Basics: Understanding the Web but also The New Computer Basics: PC Desktop Computing. The Understanding the Web session had several participants, many of whom seemed to appreciate the information we provided about clearing your "cache" and downloading images. And the few participants in the PC Computing class appeared to enjoy learning about how right-clicking can make moving around the computer easier and more efficient.
In my post from May 2011, I wrote about practicing instruction prior to actually instructing. Many of my other posts over the last year have covered this as well. So now might be the proper time to reflect. To start, I'm more comfortable teaching - especially something I've already taught. Secondly, I've become better at being patient while instructing - I've learned the goal is not to get everything done (especially in computer basics workshops!) but to teach at a pace that is both effective and appropriate for the group's learning processes. Participant's learning is the goal!
A third "lesson learned" is that I still get nervous teaching something I've never taught before, but that I've learned how to combat this. Prior to the PC Basics workshop, I spent hours preparing and getting materials ready and arrived much too early the day-of to make sure the computers were loaded with the proper documents and that the handouts were printed and correct. But through this I also learned that that helped me to feel more comfortable with the instruction. Instead of stressing, I built that time into my work schedule and was feeling prepared to teach when the time came.
Most of all, instruction is a process. Having taught the Web Basics three times now, we're still finding things to change and pieces of the workshop to adapt, and that is OK. In fact, it makes instruction fun because I've realized that nothing is perfect and that we can always do better for our participants and ourselves. The process of instructing is part of the learning process for us all (I always learn something new while teaching) - and having the opportunity to do both at the same time is something for which I'm grateful.
Last year, I considered teaching The New Basics: Computing 101 to be my first official instructional experience. I wrote that after the session, we realized we needed to tweak the workshop because there was too much content for too little time. So in between last year and this year, my co-instructor and I taught a Web Basics class, which went pretty well. This year for Enriching Scholarship, however, we decided to not only teach The New Computer Basics: Understanding the Web but also The New Computer Basics: PC Desktop Computing. The Understanding the Web session had several participants, many of whom seemed to appreciate the information we provided about clearing your "cache" and downloading images. And the few participants in the PC Computing class appeared to enjoy learning about how right-clicking can make moving around the computer easier and more efficient.
In my post from May 2011, I wrote about practicing instruction prior to actually instructing. Many of my other posts over the last year have covered this as well. So now might be the proper time to reflect. To start, I'm more comfortable teaching - especially something I've already taught. Secondly, I've become better at being patient while instructing - I've learned the goal is not to get everything done (especially in computer basics workshops!) but to teach at a pace that is both effective and appropriate for the group's learning processes. Participant's learning is the goal!
A third "lesson learned" is that I still get nervous teaching something I've never taught before, but that I've learned how to combat this. Prior to the PC Basics workshop, I spent hours preparing and getting materials ready and arrived much too early the day-of to make sure the computers were loaded with the proper documents and that the handouts were printed and correct. But through this I also learned that that helped me to feel more comfortable with the instruction. Instead of stressing, I built that time into my work schedule and was feeling prepared to teach when the time came.
Most of all, instruction is a process. Having taught the Web Basics three times now, we're still finding things to change and pieces of the workshop to adapt, and that is OK. In fact, it makes instruction fun because I've realized that nothing is perfect and that we can always do better for our participants and ourselves. The process of instructing is part of the learning process for us all (I always learn something new while teaching) - and having the opportunity to do both at the same time is something for which I'm grateful.
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Transition and Time Management
The transition from school-to-work full time happened. Quickly. Suddenly, all the "school stuff" was over, and the "work stuff" became priority. Which is good.
I started this week thinking that there would be so much time to prepare for my practice presentation about the Detroit Center this week, before teaching two sessions at Enriching Scholarship next week, before my real presentation the following week (oh, and the other presentation at MLA Technology and Trends that week, too). Somehow, 40 hours at work doesn't seem to be enough. In fact, I did "home work" this week - practicing and adjusting presentations.
So my thoughts today revolve around those very ideas... transitioning from being busy all the time, to being busy at work, while trying to manage life and work. Now, I don't need to be busy working all the time - and don't think I should be. But I do need to transition to making the most of the time I am working, and learning to know what to prioritize over these next few weeks.
I imagine this issue will arise again in December when I graduate from the School of Education and (hopefully) transition into a full-time job. Managing 12+ hours of classes, 20+ hours of work, homework, and life stuff is quite different than managing 40 hours of work and life stuff. I've done it before, but I realized this morning that it's a different way of thinking and prioritizing. I think part of it is that when there is far too much to do, I just do it. When I have time to do other things (relax a bit?), I need to focus more on the time management part of my life.
So, here's to working through that the next couple of weeks - practically and mentally. I need to realize that I shouldn't work all the time (as happened January-April), but I do need to consider how much I need to work on the important upcoming instruction sessions and presentations and how to manage that time. Any tips are welcome :)
I started this week thinking that there would be so much time to prepare for my practice presentation about the Detroit Center this week, before teaching two sessions at Enriching Scholarship next week, before my real presentation the following week (oh, and the other presentation at MLA Technology and Trends that week, too). Somehow, 40 hours at work doesn't seem to be enough. In fact, I did "home work" this week - practicing and adjusting presentations.
So my thoughts today revolve around those very ideas... transitioning from being busy all the time, to being busy at work, while trying to manage life and work. Now, I don't need to be busy working all the time - and don't think I should be. But I do need to transition to making the most of the time I am working, and learning to know what to prioritize over these next few weeks.
I imagine this issue will arise again in December when I graduate from the School of Education and (hopefully) transition into a full-time job. Managing 12+ hours of classes, 20+ hours of work, homework, and life stuff is quite different than managing 40 hours of work and life stuff. I've done it before, but I realized this morning that it's a different way of thinking and prioritizing. I think part of it is that when there is far too much to do, I just do it. When I have time to do other things (relax a bit?), I need to focus more on the time management part of my life.
So, here's to working through that the next couple of weeks - practically and mentally. I need to realize that I shouldn't work all the time (as happened January-April), but I do need to consider how much I need to work on the important upcoming instruction sessions and presentations and how to manage that time. Any tips are welcome :)
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