Monday, May 3, 2010

Based on what you've seen . . .

So, here is your last blog prompt! Congratulations for reaching the end of the semester! So, for this final blog reply, please think about your peers' presentations. In your opinion, which presentation best exemplified the features of effective technical communication? To answer this thoroughly, you'll need to reflect on what those features are-- we have been examining them all term. Be specific in your comment. Describe how your peer's presentation exemplified the clear communication of technical information to a non-technical audience. Describe how your peer incorporated text and images together in an aesthetically powerfully way.

13 comments:

  1. First of all, I don't like this question as it could make some people feel bad when their presentation is not mentioned. So, I'm going to talk about what the features of effective technical communication is and not refer to any specific peer.

    Features of effective technical communication include appearance, content, clarity of both appearance and content, and reader accessibility.

    Most of the PowerPoint presentations we have seen have effectively used color contrast, size of text, amount of text per slide, and graphics effectively. The presenters all spoke loudly and clearly with few awkward pauses, 'ums', and unnecessary nervous movement.

    The best presentations used graphics and text to captivate the audience. The best presenters were very enthusiastic about their project and incorporated their enthusiasm into their presentation. Whenever technical vocabulary was used, it was defined beforehand, or at the same time the vocabulary was introduced.

    The best presenters were very knowledgeable about their topic and fielded questions well, even when they did not know the answers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have found all of the presentation to be interesting, and just about everyone has presented exceptionally. I can't decide which one was the best, but there are some specific aspects from individual presentations that I think are worth mentioning. I thought Tony and Estela spoke most clearly and it made their presentations sound prepared. The samples that Stacey and Nick passed around and Lee's (and a couple others', I think) use of the white board during their presentations were helpful in illustrating the concepts they were describing. I thought Courtney's dad's demonstration of the blood sugar monitoring during her presentation was a good example of pathos because it made me understand how diabetes impacts a person's life. For the most part, Powerpoint was used well by keeping presented information in short bullets. I thought most of the graphics were helpful, appropriate, and clear. I think everyone cited their graphics and presented references at the end, but I felt that discussion about secondary research that supports the primary research was the most common thing that was lacking from the presentations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think that everyone has done pretty well on their presentations. We still have two more at the time of this writing so I hope they do well.

    I felt that most show that they practiced their presentations beforehand. The presentations flowed quite well. Many of the presentations also stayed right on the time limit without going over. The only exceptions I can think of were Tony and James; they both needed to rush a bit to finish their presentations but I felt they both presented quite well.

    For the cons, I agree with James; secondary research was not mentioned very much in the presentations. Typically, there would be a couple of in-text citations for images and occasionally for content. Most just put a slide at the end of the presentation that has all of their sources. I feel that this wasn't the best way to incorporate secondary sources.

    I also think that many of the presentations were not clear about what kind of research project they were doing. For example, most wrote recommendation or findings reports but this was not made explicitly clear in the presentations.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the best presentations were the ones where powerpoint was used sparingly. When powerpoint was used I thought the use of white space helped the overall aesthetics of the presentation, while aiding the presenter with small cues about what they were talking about.

    I agree with Ryan in regards to the references slide. I believe all references should be quote within the slide and that eliminates the need for a reference slide. Who's going to keep track of the number of the reference till the end of the presentation?

    ReplyDelete
  5. My peer’s presented their information in a clear manner. First my peer’s made eye contact with the audience while they were presenting. Also, while they were presenting they used non-technical language to explain concepts. If my peer’s use technical language they defined it, so we knew what they were talking about. My peer’s PowerPoint presentations were well thought out. None of the text on the slides was too small. Also, none of the slides had too much text. Also the colors used on the slides had good contrast, so you could read the slides easily.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Overall, I felt that all of my peers presented their projects very well. Sometimes it felt like I had no idea what they did, but they did present their respective information efficiently. I think a good balance of powerpoint and speaking was needed here. Long periods of explanation don't really captivate audiences as well as one thinks, but getting the point across slides takes up too much time. One presentation that I thought was good was Courtney's. It had a demonstration that held my attention and she went over the information in a nice, easy to follow tone.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I thought Alan and Tony were the best in that they both chose topics that almost everybody can easily relate to. Everybody that lives on or near campus has probably dealt with the wireless internet and I am sure of those people almost all download or store music somehow on their computers. Tony and Alan both did great in explaining the technical term used in their topics and making them interesting and informational to people using these devices and programs. Tony used graphics to show the coverage of wireless on campus and Alan used sample music to demonstrate the difference in quality. They were both very good presentations.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I think almost all of them were pretty well done. I wasn't expecting anything other than PP presentations to be honest. It's a tried and true method, and if anyone tried presenting any other way, it would be interesting, but most certainly not as effective.

    Hats off to Tony, Lee, and Estela. I liked theirs the most. They all maintained a calm, relaxed tone when speaking, best explained technical things in a non-technical matter, and effectively referenced secondary research. Everyone else did well too, I just felt these people were the best.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I thought everyone did a great job. The presentation I thought was excellent was Nick’s he used a very visual presentation. I like to be engaged in a presentation, I thought he drew the audience in with great pictures, video and his presentation of his information was excellent. I might be a little biased, I like explosives. He presented rather complex ideas in very simple terms. He also involved the audience with his by passing around the copper cone. Not to take away from anyone else’s presentation because there were a lot of great presentations, I thought Nick’s presentation was very balanced with facts, voice, pictures and video. Great job everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think most people did a god job of explaining what their research was and why they were doing it in an understandable way. I agree with the fact that secondary research was not strongly present in most of the presentations.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I saw alot of people citing secondary research and properly crediting their images appropriately. But not too many people actually referenced alot of their secondary research directly. People showed good comprehension of their primary research and made good use of PowerPoint slides. None of the reports got excessively technical. They were all pretty understandable to people who were not familiar with the subject matter.

    ReplyDelete
  13. For any report to be effective, they must demonstrate appropriate use of white space, images, definitions, and all the aspects that keep the audience interested and informed.

    Presentations must include the above (if a tool like power point is to be used) along with: a loud and confident voice, preparedness, and knowledge regarding their subject.

    I think that everyone in class did a good job meeting all these points. Each presenter kept me interested, and the material was informative.

    Have a good summer everyone!

    ReplyDelete