Effective Presentations

     It is becoming increasingly common to view a computer presentation in buisiness meetings, social programs, and in the classroom. Microsoft powerpoint is one of the most widely used formats for computer presentations, however, there are several online presentation sites such as prezi.com and Google Presentations. There is an endless amount of ways that a presentation can be designed and one of the biggest flaws is that it is too easy to over design a presentation. What I mean is that there can be too many pictures, or the color scheme is over or under contrasted. Perhaps there are distracting animations or the font is too small to read. One of the easiest ways to make a successful presentation is to simplify, simplify, simplify! As an example I will use the prezi presentation I created called "What is Effective Technology Integration for 21st Century Learners?".

https://prezi.com/secure/3876c89009fbd7355eae69ed69a9b9784ce51ffa/

    In my presentation I do several things to keep things simple and effective. One thing we cannot forget that this is just a visual for an actual oral presentation that would be given in front of an audience. The audience must not be distracted by:

     DON'T
                       - use complicated images and graphs
                       - too many images,
                       - too much text
                       - a wide variety of slide backgrounds and colors
                       - distracting animations.

There are many different things that can be done to simplify a presentation. Including:

     DO
                      - Use large font
                      - Choose an easy to read font
                      - Keep visuals simple and easy to interpret
                      - Use minimal visuals
                      - Keep colors consistent (Backgrounds and fonts)
                      - Use logical transitions from topic to topic and from slide to slide
                      - Limit the text to the bare necessities.

In my presentation I attempt to utilize many of these techniques. I kept the images and text to a minimum. I attempted to have my topic flow from one point to another in a logical way. I made the font large and easy to read. And finally I kept the colors consistent in text and backgrounds. I believe my presentation is interesting without being too distracting. As a presenter I would be able to discuss my topic without loosing the audience in what was going on behind me in the presentation.