Presentation of your life

Today is the day people.
A theme for us has been effective feedback. Not wishy-washy, "Aww! Wasn't that nice! You're just awesome!" feedback.
That's rubbish.
We're talking real feedback. Timely, specific comments aimed at helping people learn and grow.
So here's the deal

1. Your research team splits up so each person is a "representative" in a larger presentation group and head off to separate areas.


2. For each presentation you view, you are required to fill out the student presentation feedback form (click here to view). Fill it out as accurately as possible (spelling of names etc). I am putting a ban on the word "good". Learning to give good feedback is as important as learning how to receive it.


3. At the end of all presentations start a blog post reflecting on your experience. What was it like to present? Which presentation interested you the most and why? How did you feel about giving feedback to the other presenters? As always feel free to use the sentence starters to you know, get you started.

There’s a bit to get through so we have to be as efficient and effective as possible. Stay focused. Enjoy.

Taking advice

Consultations are complete. Most groups will have comments on their documents, everyone will have spoken with me about their evaluation and presentation.

If you haven't shared all of you project documents via Google Docs you need to get that sorted out immediately.

The next question your group is called to answer is "What will you do with the advice?" Check your documents, review the previous blog post with "Death by PowerPoint", make the necessary adjustments and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. You have only one more scheduled lesson before you must present so use the time wisely.

Death by presentation

Is a very slow death indeed. Show some mercy!

This presentation is quite instructive and has useful tips on how you can improve the quality of your presentations.

Death by PowerPoint

View more documents from Alexei Kapterev.

Deadlines

Presentations for BB will be Tuesday 17-November.

Presentations for CBE will be Monday 9-November.

It may seem like a long way off but there is much work to be done compiling better research and polishing presentations for maximum effectiveness. Check your progress against the assessment rubrics on the Resources page. Be aware Cup weekend (and some other things?) may rob you of some lessons.

Both classes will be presenting to some "big wigs" in the organisation so make it a PB! (personal best)

The consultation has begun

The consultations have started. If you haven't had a consultation yet here are some things your group should check/work on before you get there.

1. Fill out the document templates - You can't collaborate if all the stuff is written in one person's book. Get it into the shared document.
2. Ask better questions - The quality of your questions directly affect the quality of your answers. Better questions better answers! Ask for help if you're struggling
3. Consult the assessment rubrics - They're the goal posts. They can be found on the Resources page.

I still think some groups are taking the project a bit lightly. You have to create an informative high quality presentation and that stuff doesn't happen by itself. It takes time, effort and cooperation. A true test of of character and self discipline. Get organised and get working.
To assist with the research and presentation planning stuff (like what's on the list above) everyone should complete the following tutorials on Atomic Learning. Each section takes about 20 minutes and is well worth the time investment. Don't forget to plug in those headphones.

• Affecting Change: Our Greenhouse Earth
  
  
  
  • B. Gathering Information
    
    • Searching on "climate change"
    • Identifying the origin of source material
    • Finding copyright information
    • Recording information in a Google Doc
    • Formatting text in a Google document
    • Adding a hyperlink to your Google Doc
    • Adding a table to outline the presentation
  • C. Creating the Presentation
    
    • Creating a new presentation from a template
    • Modifying the title slide
    • Adding key points to other slides
    • Adding images to a slide
    • Inserting text, images, videos, and shapes
    • Adding hyperlinks to your slides
    • Citing your sources properly
    • Showing a presentation

Recite your mantra

Bit of a focus on blog tricks and techniques. Remember the mantra,
"Audience and purpose, audience and purpose!"
I fully appreciate everyone wanting to make their sites look super colourful and attractive but sometimes less is more. And you should never "bling" your site at the expense of core functions like followers and comments. It's a blog. Purpose! Remember?
I have said all I am going to say about hot pink text on black backgrounds and the like...
Now if you need help with your blog posts I feel your pain. If you're not used to using a muscle it can take a while to build your strength but in the meantime the workouts kill! Well help is at hand. Check out this earlier post with a link to some sentence starters. Pick one from each section, complete the sentence and bingo! Instant paragraph.
Don't forget to fill out the online self assessment form mentioned in the previous post every so often and keep chipping away at those projects. Our Greenhouse Earth Project Launcher on Atomic Learning can help you out with the nitty gritty (we actually used it as sort of a template. Shh! Don't tell!)

Thoughts on collaboration

Every couple of weeks you should fill out the online self assessment form (you can also find the link on the Resources page under "for your accountability"). It will help you track your progress and the progress of your group. You may even think of something yo write on your blog in the process.
Here are some of my thoughts on collaboration. I have some termed them as "raise the bar" questions for you...

• When a group of people are collaborating what things might they be saying?
• What words would they be using?
• What would their voices sound like (what tone of voice)?

Coming up with some answers and focusing on these will help to build better relationships within your team. I'd also like to find out what you think about this...
Can you listen without 'hearing'?
I think there is "listening for understanding" and "listening for when it's MY turn to speak".
What do you think? Is there a difference?

Persistence

This continues with the theme from the last post. It's by presentation ninja Garr Reynolds inspired by a book by Daniel Pink called Johnny Bunko.

Lesson 4 from Johnny Bunko

View more documents from garr.

I think this may have super relevance to the task you have just begun. Does it seem big and confusing at the moment? Of course it does. When you start out many things can appear overwhelming even insurmountable. Take Dory's advice and, "keep on swimming". Revisit the task pages as often as you need to and, "keep on swimming". Work through the Our Greenhouse Earth project launcher on Atomic Learning and, "keep on swimming."

If you liked Animoto...

After some informative presentations if Animoto took your fancy (let's face it, it's pretty awesome!) ther are some great tips on Amit Agarwal Digital Inspiration site
Tips for Producing Better Video Slideshows with Animoto

If you are already using Animoto to create video slideshows of your photos, here are some tips for producing even better video.

There's also a link to get a free full length video on Animoto which you can download to boot.
Nice.

Feedback on presentations

Good, timely feedback is super important. It helps us learn and grow.

1. For each presentation you view, you are required to fill out the student presentation feedback form (click here to view). Please fill it out as accurately as possible (spelling of names etc). Learning to give good feedback is as important as learning how to receive it.
   
2.  At the end of all the presentations write a blog post reflecting on your experience. What was it like to present? Which presentation interested you the most and why? How did you feel about giving feedback to the other presenters?
   

There's a bit to get through so we have to be as efficient and effective as possible. Stay focused. Enjoy.

More love for the Evernote people

Lots of tips on Ron's Evernote blog.

Evernote

For those groups having a look at Evernote I have some good news. Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte chat to Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote on "net@night 98". The interview starts at around the 25:40 mark so if you want to get the inside skinny on exactly where Evernote came from and where it's going download or listen online.

What's the go Daddio?

Liking the post titles? I know you are. You love them.
Time to let the cat out of the bag on the project for this term. If you chatted to either of us at PT night you may have gotten a brief rundown. It is essential you have your Google services sorted out (mainly GMail, GDocs and Blogger) and know how to use them. They are essential to your success.
Read on for details...

You will be in groups of 4 (7 groups of 4 per class)

• Your teacher will select the groups
• You can't change groups

Each group will research, trial and critically an online service and share their findings with the others

• Your teacher will tell you which service your group is researching

You have to answer the following key questions about your service

1. What is it's purpose?
2. Who is the audience?
3. Does it encourage collaboration or make it easier?
4. Does it facilitate communication and sharing of information?
5. What are the risks/costs?
6. What are the benefits?

You will use Google Docs to plan, research, gather and share your project

• Helpful templates will be provided
  
• Make sure you contribute
• Make sure you allow others to contribute

One person from each group get together to share reviews (4 groups of 7 per class)

• Each group member uses their groups research to present to others
• This means you present individually (refer to previous point - make sure you contribute!)

You are required to do self assessments and group assessments along the way. You can turn these into blog posts if you wish to help you get those ten (10) done for the term.

There will be more details next week when the project kicks off but in the mean time sort out your accounts and get that blog looking pretty.

Who's an average kid?

You will have started averages and other stuff in Maths class already. Next term you will be doing an inquiry project using spreadsheet to examine some of this stuff further. To help with this you will be working through a couple of projects on Atomic Learning. To help you complete the project though you first have to go to the shared drive on the server and get some instructions and data (your teacher will show you where to get it)
Then go to Average Kid and work through the lessons.