Think of the last time you sat in a presentation. Did you find yourself nodding off or were you engaged? Days later, could you recall the primary elements or just a blur of bullet points? As Information Professionals there are many opportunities to meet learning needs, but often we lack the communication skills necessary to deliver them. This session will offer techniques for structuring your talks for the key message, the venue, and most importantly, the audience. Whether you are teaching new students how to use electronic resources or pitching an idea to your supervisor, your attendance ensures a more confident, relaxed approach to delivering presentations and public speaking. After this session attendees should be able to: 1. Apply the broad, systemic ADDIE method of Instructional Design (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate) to any informational or motivational talk 2. Implement the latest trends in presentation methods after analyzing techniques from modern communications thought-leaders 3. Connect with audience members so that they retain not only the primary message, but see results from your objectives

1. Opening title page

2. Presented by Marianne Lenox for Culture Keepers VII

3. Agenda Be passionate! Have a plan Write it down Tell your story Prove your point Gather support

4. Be Passionate: It's more than just knowing your subject, you've got to be passionate about it. Make them think you adore it. Most likely you already know your subject fairly well or you wouldn't have been asked (or volunteered) to speak on it. If the topic is new to you, immerse yourself in it as much as possible before you start the next step. Find what motivated you about the subject / project / situation and tell it like you mean it. During the presentation: Make it conversational. Says Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users: “speaking directly to the user is more effective than a more formal lecture tone is that the user's brain thinks it's in a conversation, and therefore has to pay more attention to hold up its end! Sure, your brain intellectually knows it isn't having a face-to-face conversation, but at some level, your brain wakes up when its being talked with as opposed to talked at .” Let me give you some background on Kathy Sierra and why she’s such an important part of this story…. Make it controversial. If passion is involved, there will be controversy. Kathy’s story may be an extreme, but it does point out that when you are so intense about your message that not everyone will agree… Image by Alex de Carvalho

5. Have a plan: Now we meet “Addie,” www.learning-theories.com has an excellent synopsis of ADDIE: The generic term for the five-phase instructional design model consisting of Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. Each step has an outcome that feeds into the next step in the sequence. There are probably over 100+ different variations of the generic ADDIE model…I think it certainly applies to presentations, as well.

6. Have a plan: During analysis, the designer identifies the learning problem, the goals and objectives, the audience’s needs, existing knowledge, and any other relevant characteristics. Analysis also considers the learning environment, any constraints, the delivery options, and the timeline for the project.

7. Have a plan: The design is the systematic process of specifying learning objectives. Detailed storyboards and prototypes are often made, and the look and feel, graphic design, user-interface and content is determined here.

8. Have a plan: Development is the actual creation (production) of the content and learning materials based on the Design phase.

9. Have a plan: During implementation, the plan is put into action and a procedure for training the learner and teacher is developed. Materials are delivered or distributed to the student group. After delivery, the effectiveness of the training materials is evaluated.

10. Have a plan: The evaluation phase consists of (1) formative and (2) summative evaluation. Formative evaluation is present in each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluation consists of tests designed for criterion-related referenced items and providing opportunities for feedback from the users. Revisions are made as necessary. Rapid prototyping (continual feedback) has sometimes been cited as a way to improve the generic ADDIE model. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

11. Have a plan: Put the five ADDIE ingredients in a (clockwise) blender, mix well.

12. Have a plan: The typical ADDIE model

13. Write it down: Turn off your phone, your computers, your books…everything. Then, use your favorite pen and pad, pick a favorite place outside or go hide. Write what you know.

14. Write it down: From your notes, make an analog outline of what you want to accomplish or teach during your talk, filling in each section so that eventually it could become a narration or even the basis for a handout. If you have gaps, go back and do more research! Image by Aruni

15. Tell your story: Lee Lefever of CommonCraft videos said….

16. Tell your story: Involve your audience by giving them someone to empathize with and to make them care. The story might be about yourself or someone else, it doesn't matter as long as it's a good tell. Is it a talk in front of an audience or do you need to create a multimedia presentation or screencast? Your delivery format depends on your topic and venue, not the other way around. Image by HMCPL

17. Make your point: They might remember 3 things from your presentation a week from now, most likely only one. If asked, this is what you'd want them to remember a week later! Audience participation: ask the attendees if anyone has to write a presentation soon and would like to share their three main points….

18. Prove your point (not just make your point!): This is where you lay out how or why it's done, keeping it as simple as possible. Give them a real tool or resource they can use. If they are asked to recall one thing about your presentation a week later, would it be how completely awful you are at presenting or that you don’t know your topic? Image by HMCPL

19. Gather support: Another blank page, and this one is going to be hard to fill in. Now you’ve got to introduce subject matter experts, resources and supporting documentation into your delivery, providing active learning opportunities so that your audience can fully engage your topic. You’ve also got to create something for your audience to take home. What kind of handouts do you like? What support do you need after attending a presentation? This slide intentionally left blank.

20. Review today’s talking points

21. Thank you! This presentation been my story about giving talks…

22. For further reading visit http://mariannelenox.com/2010/08/talking-points.html The card I gave you at the beginning of class has the URL if you’d like to see the presentation again or study some of the articles or concepts we’ve discussed today. The other side of the card contains the same three blank lines you saw when I talked about “proving your point.” Please write down the three things you think you’ll remember 7 days from now about this presentation, then tuck the card away in your wallet. Next week, (as part of the evaluation process) comment on the blog post to let me know if your prediction holds true!