Reflection on Presentations

Ok, think back to last week's presentations. What particular presentations still remain with you, that is which ones are memorable? Why so? A presentation may stick out in your memory because it was "good" or "bad"...share accordingly. Please give some details, and maybe even respond to one of your classmates as they remark on presentations that impacted them.

Comments

sosborne said…
In general, some presentations stuck out in my mind when they involved too much text on each slide or reading directly from the slides/notes. I hate to single people out, especially as I noticed this to be a reoccurring problem that several of my peers struggled with. Reading directly from the notes, particularly reading directly from the powerpoint slides, makes one look unprepared and as if they are not an expert on his or her topic. We as an audience can already read your slides and are relying on the presenter to provide further explanation on the topics you present on the slides. However, it was impressive when presenters could easily provide answers for those of us who asked questions. It makes the presenter appear as though they really did their research and know information even beyond that presented during the powerpoint. All in all, good job to everyone.
April 15, 2012 at 9:34 PM
andie aldana said…
In my opinion, I think everyone did a good job. Like sosborne said, when reading off the slides it made the presenter seem unprepared. I think it's important to keep presentations engaging which most people did successfully. Some ways to keep it engaging is with videos, sound effects, visual effects, and bright colors. However, all of these factors have the potential to be too distracting which could potentially take away from the presentation. I would say that overall, everyone put effort into their presentations and I enjoyed learning about each person's "place".
April 15, 2012 at 9:43 PM
Eva said…
It was neat to be able to learn more about many people's places of interest/hometown's environmental qualities. I personally liked this type of multi-modal presentation as opposed to the traditional written paper as it was a more concise and straight forward way to pregsent factual information. It was great to see the presenters' personalities displayed through what types of images, colors, and slide transitions they chose for their presentations. I learned a lot about many different places and it was good to be able to have it presented to us, rather than simply reading about it for an assignment. Overall, the presentations have been interesting to watch and listen to and I look forward to the remaining presentations.
April 15, 2012 at 10:14 PM
RebeccaKeefe said…
I think that everyone had good presentations and were diverse about the information that they presented. Presentations that particularly stood out were when it didn't seem like their "place" was trying to be sold only good news. It concentrated on the serious environmental problems that their place is facing and how people are effected. This presentation really grasped the concept of the assignment and it appeared the presenter had a genuine concern about her "place". It was a good technique that kept the audience listening and interested. Everyone did a great job, but this presentation stood out to me the most.
April 16, 2012 at 12:19 AM
Rebeccas Albright said…
I think everyone's presentations are very informative and really good. It can be sometimes difficult to come up with a detailed presentation on just a place someone is from and find out everything that the environment has an effect on. However, I think it would've been cooler to write about a disaster that happened or an environmental concern instead of just a very broad location. Having too much information on slides and going into too much detail about one topic can be very distracting to the listeners but overall I think that everyone did a great job.
April 16, 2012 at 12:31 AM
tuyentru said…
This assignment being nontraditional called for much more creativity oppose to a normal written essay. In my opinion, this made the assignment very enjoyable. Clearly many people put a lot of work into the research and presentation of their "Place". Responding to sosborne, I did use my notes that I typed and put into the notes section of the presentation. It probably would have been better if I didn't read so much from my notes and talked freely about it in order to have a stronger connection with my audience. This was a good comment by her.
April 16, 2012 at 9:14 AM
josh.thai said…
All of the presentations thus far were enjoyable as well as informational. The ones most memorable were those that contained data through charts, graphs, etc... Likewise, I can still remember many of the pictures used in the presentations. Along with this, it was easy to tell those who were prepared as opposed to those just winging it; however, most were prepared and very engaging in their presentations. I look forward to the upcoming presentations.
April 16, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Kaitlyn Bochicchio said…
I thought that for the most part people did very well on their presentations! I enjoyed learning about the places and seeing the creativity. Most of the places had significant value to the presenters, so it was also nice that I could learn a little bit more about what is special to my peers. One presentation that stood out to me was the Waxhaw one by Alex because I am from Waxhaw as well. I think he did a good job portraying what it is like there.
April 16, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Anne said…
I think everyone has done well so far on their presentations. Everyone who has presented so far has been had very diverse presentations in both locations and in the content. I think the best ones have been ones with few text, pictures on each slide, and have focused on the environmental atmosphere on their place. Overall, I think all the presentations have been very interesting and have shown the class where people have grown up and/or places that have value to them.
April 16, 2012 at 11:05 AM
Randall Fulghum said…
I think that everyone did well in presenting their power points. Each person presented a different way, but they were all ultimately effective. Some presentations involved too much text on the power points, but most people elaborated on it and made the presentation much more effective. All in all, I enjoyed everyone's presentations.
April 16, 2012 at 11:21 AM
Lauren said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
April 16, 2012 at 11:24 AM
Lauren said…
I would definitely agree with most of the above commenters that everyone has done well but included a few powerpoints here and there with a bit too much information. While not a fan of the slide effects at first, I now see their importance in keeping the audience's interest and focus. I especially liked the presentations where you could tell people had done more than the average amount of research and were experts on their place. I can't wait to see what the rest of the presenters have to offer!
April 16, 2012 at 11:26 AM
Abbie said…
I was unable to attend class last week and therefore missed all of the presentations. I do remember Tuyen's persentation very vividly. The way her powerpoint was set up made it very easy to follow and appealing to the eyes. She clearly stated her points and even showed a video to conclude her powerpoint. Not only was her presentation clear and concise, but she was also very prepared. I thought she did a great job and for these reasons, Tuyen's powerpoint stood out in my mind.
April 16, 2012 at 11:41 AM
Apenegre said…
Most of the powerpoints were well designed with transitions and animations. However, I felt like people put their entire presentation on the powerpoints, as in complete sentences and too many words when you're only supposed to put bullets and very few words and expand on them throughout the presentation. There were a few extraordinary presentations; the most notable one that I can remember was Ludwig's presentation on California.
April 16, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Krista Smith said…
The presentations that were well-organized, are the ones that helped me follow along with what was being presented. When a presentation is easy to follow, it is easier to pay attention to. Also, the presentations that had a focus and had all of the slides related to one topic, are the ones that I remember. I tended to pay more attention to the presentations that had pictures and graphs since they kept me more interested. I have enjoyed learning about each person’s “place” since they are all so diverse. Overall, I feel as though our class is doing well with the presentations!
April 16, 2012 at 12:43 PM
Matt Michel said…
So far I have found the presentations to be both informative and engaging. i like that many of people chose to do their projects on their hometowns, giving us inside knowledge from a "local" instead of just facts from government sites. i also believe that the best presentation to date was Tuyen's on her hometown of Charlotte. The fact that she was well prepared for the presentation was apparent throughout the PowerPoint. Just a side note on the one child policy: I was involved in Model UN throughout high school, one of our topics was the one child policy in China. We actually had a guest speaker from China who told us that if a family wanted to have more than one child they would be heavily taxed by the government, no harm would come to the child.
April 16, 2012 at 12:47 PM
Shahzeb Khan said…
I feel in general most of the presentations were well prepared, the presenters understood their topics and showed a clear interest in the area they had chosen, some of the presenters were clearly better public speakers than others and some had clearly not prepared to present, however, I feel like I did learn something from each presentation, I did feel most of the presentations needed an overall thesis or argument they should have been trying to persuade to audience to accept, which many of these presentations lacked. That was the only notable downside to the majority of these presentations from what I noticed.
April 16, 2012 at 1:09 PM
Kendra Jones said…
The presenters that have presented thus far have done a through job profiling their place. As a result, there were a number of presentations that stood out to me. An easy way to capture an audience when using powerpoint, is trough the use of images. Whether photos, data, or even videos. I enjoyed those powerpoints that were organized and had a clear thesis as well. This makes for improved audience comprehension. Those presenters who answered questions showed a great understanding of their place and topics.
April 16, 2012 at 1:22 PM
Sammy Duffee said…
I think that so far everyone has done a good job in informing the audience of their place. I don't think anybody has had trouble keeping the attention of the class. There have been a few people reading straight from the slides but personally that has never bothered me. I think they have been great so far.
April 16, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Daniel Marko said…
So far the presentations have been "good" on average. Many people have to much information on their slides, with an absence of explanation by the present. I particularity dislike the videos that people show (not the video itself, but how they present it). A video should not take up too much time from your presentation. For the time limit we had, videos presented should not be more than 30 seconds long. If they are, it feels like you are not the presenting, instead the narrator in the video.
April 16, 2012 at 1:37 PM
Melissa Rineer said…
In general I think that the presentation I have seen thus far have been well done. Presentations that caught my eye for negative reasons were ones that continued too much text or did not seem to have an identifiable thesis that drove each slide. On the other hand, the ones that stuck out for positive reasons either had striking visuals, and enthusiastic presenter and/and interesting topic. I think the presenters have overall done a great job and their powerpoints have been constucted well.
April 16, 2012 at 1:56 PM
Chase Lunning said…
I think that everyone has done a great job presenting so far. I agree with what Marko said about showing a long video. I think that even 30 seconds can be a little on the lengthy side. I also think that reading directly from your PowerPoint, and not adding any additional information, is kind of pointless. I am very capable of reading a few sentences on a slide. I'm more interested in the elaboration of the information. Relevant pictures, not just clip art, can definitely assist the presenter in conveying information.
April 16, 2012 at 1:58 PM
Jennifer Loving said…
I agreee with everyone that presentations have been pretty good so far! However, some did consist of a little too much writing on the slides. The relative images, videos and special effects are really what caught my attention and kept me focused on the presentation. Also, I think it was a great idea to give the presenter a comment or question at the end of every presentation letting them know that classmates were paying attention and at the same time giving some feedback. I look forward to seeing the last couple of powerpoints in the classes to come.
April 16, 2012 at 2:06 PM
RShumate said…
I think everyone has done a decent job so far in presenting their information. There were a few presentations where I'd have to agree with a few others and say that you should not read directly from your slides or notes. Ideally one would know all of the information that they are presenting and shouldn't have to read directly from anything. You don't want to read to your audience. All of the PowerPoints have looked nice. Another thing that can get out of hand are animations, which some people went a little overboard on. Overall though they have been good presentations.
April 16, 2012 at 2:08 PM
Dylan Lilley said…
I think that everyone has done well with their presentations and I have enjoyed seeing the work that my classmates have done. Pictures are definitely helpful in PowerPoints because they give the audience a better understanding of what the presenter is trying to get across and it helps to keep us entertained and focused. I could relate to one of the PowerPoints because the presenter and I are both from the East coast so we both are affected by hurricanes. He talked about Hurricane Floyd, which I remembered causing flooding in my home area as well as his too.
April 16, 2012 at 2:45 PM
Randall Jernigan said…
Presentations for English 101
Ludwig did an amazing job presenting, because he really knew his material. He used three main sources of information; he has lived in Los Angeles, he really did his research and he incorporated interesting facts that greatly added to the report. His presentation was the one that I can still remember the most details about and he was very confident in his presenting. This report impacted me, because I got to learn about a place far away from where I grew up at in North Carolina. I knew that Los Angeles was where Highway 40 ends and that was about it. Today I know about the culture, environmental issues and the reason for California to be more sustainable.
April 16, 2012 at 3:40 PM
Justin Childress said…
I thought everyone did a good job with their powerpoints but I think Shahzeb's stood out because he presented very well. His powerpoint might have been wordy at some times and there were others that looked nicer, but I thought Shahzeb did an excellent job with the actual presentation aspect because he managed to keep people interested and engaged in his powerpoint.
April 16, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Kamcgoldrick said…
Being one of the first to present was nerve racking but I think that everyone did a really good job. Speaking as someone who gets nervous speaking in front of a crowd I think that my peers had there nerves under control and spoke very professionally about their place. I enjoyed the information that I learned and I enjoyed pictures and graphs as visual aids. Having so much freedom for a project like this allows students to set their own standards and present something they would be proud of. I think everyone presented something they were proud of and I enjoyed their presentations. Kudos, everyone.
April 16, 2012 at 4:10 PM
Ali Brown said…
I feel that last weeks presentations went well! The presentation that still remains with me was given by Ludwig on Los Angeles. He knew his information and presented well. I loved that he had just visited, so he could give stories about the pictures throughout his presentation. Special effects give the presentation a nice twist and make it a little more entertaining. The presentations have been very informative and a lot of fun.
April 16, 2012 at 4:28 PM
Erin said…
I enjoyed the presentations a lot, and feel like I got to know the class a little bit better. However, I do agree with Rebecca and wish the prompt was something more specific instead of so broad. While preparing for my presentation, I felt very confused on what we were actually supposed to write about. One of the presentations that sticks out in my mind is something that I think was way too short and didn't really provide much information. I hope my presentation is informative enough for the class to remember mine!
April 16, 2012 at 4:33 PM
Sam Avolis said…
I think all the presentations so far have gone very well. The ones that have seemed to stand out are those which presented much less text per slide as compared to the those with much more. As far as special effects go, sometimes I feel like they are a little bit too much, as if they take away from the actual presentation. I especially have liked when the place described has been a place that the presenter knows very well. It allows for a lot of interesting personal insight, which certainly boosts the overall quality of the presentation.
April 16, 2012 at 4:36 PM
Pharen said…
The China and Wilmington presentations were most memorable since they were done the same way I do PowerPoints. The slides had bullet-points with a few words or very short phrases to give the audience an idea of what they would elaborate on verbally; others used long sentences. Everyone presented great pictures of the place they chose to research.
April 16, 2012 at 4:37 PM
Anonymous said…
There were two kinds of presentations that stood out in my mind. The first ones that stand out in my mind are the ones that people read right off the screen. I do not like when people read off the screen especially when they turn and face the wall to read off the screen. Some of the presentations had too much text which took away from what the person was trying to explain. I did not mind when the presenter read off the other computer as long as it was not directly off the slide. I believe you should not know the entire presentation by just seeing the powerpoint.
The second type of presentations that stood out in my mind were the ones with lots of pictures. I love the pictures and the animations. The pictures and transitions make me want to pay attention to the powerpoint so I know what is coming next. I also like the presentations that focused on one particular environmental issue instead of just giving lots of different details about the landscape, issues in the area, and habitats.
Overall I believe the presentations have gone very well so far. Some minor details could be improved, but other than that I believe powerpoints have been a success.
April 16, 2012 at 4:38 PM
Melissa Ferling said…
I think that it is obvious that everyone who has presented so far has been very knowledgeable of their topic. It is interesting to see how everyone’s presentation has been so different even though everyone was given the same assignment. The presentations that have stuck with me as being good are the ones with relevant pictures were the presenter was able to connect all of their slides together. The not so good presentations that have stuck with me are when the presenter gets in front of the class and is reading directly off of their computer screen and trying to manage switching slides on both their computer and the slides on the projector.
April 16, 2012 at 4:47 PM
Krina Patel said…
So far, I think everyone in my class has had great presentations. Everyone has presented on different towns and countries so it is fascinating to hear all of the diversity. It is also interesting to see how all of the students put their own individual flair on their presentations because although the topic was the same for everyone, none of the presentations have been remotely similar; for example, some people talked more about the geography, some talked about the culture, and some talked a little about everything. I am excited to see everyone else present their powerpoints and learn more about other places in the world.
April 16, 2012 at 5:04 PM
Necho Williams said…
The presentations so far have been pretty good. one in particular stood out to me, which was Lauren's. I thought the content was excellent, and her background on Guyana even though she's not from there was fantastic. Again, all presenters did fairly well, and I could tell they all worked hard on them.
April 16, 2012 at 5:18 PM
Will Burton said…
I don't remember much about the power points, I remember most of the places but not many specific details. The main thing I remember about the power point presentations is the one about Guyana. I remember this one because I was shocked about the circle of sewage surrounding the country. I know the other ones were on Holly Springs, Baltimore, can't remember the rest.
April 16, 2012 at 6:18 PM
Johnathon Owen said…
Overall, the presentations went splendidly. With the exception of a few, all the presentations were effective means of educating the class about different places and the environmental difficulties of those places. What I liked about these presentations is that they were a nice change of pace from the typical essay. By being able to convey the information in a power point rather than a paper awarded us the opportunity to share with the class our findings.
April 16, 2012 at 6:31 PM
Ludwig said…
All of the presentations so far have been very interesting. I really like how students have given historical and cultural background on the place that they chose. Most presentations have had a balance between text and graphics on the slides, which is important. As it has been previously mentioned by others, I do think that reading straight off from the power point looks as if the presenter is unprepared. It is okay to have notes and occasionally glance at them in order to refresh your mind on what you are going to say. Aside from that detail, I believe the presentations so far have gone really well. I am learning about different places and enjoying it as well.
April 16, 2012 at 8:39 PM
Matt Anderson said…
All of the presentations have been good so far. They all had the key parts that were required for the power point. People have been using good pictures to illustrate what they have been talking about. I think that the picture of the smog in Egypt was particularly memorable because there is no fog in Egypt, yet the entire sky was filled with smoke. The amount of smog was incredible especially because it shows how unhealthy the air is for residents to breathe on a daily basis. I also like Lugwig’s presentation because he grew up in Los Angeles, California, so he had real experiences that he could share about L.A. to go along with the pictures in his power point. All the pictures that have been shown in the power points have been very effective in showing what the presenter is talking about because it one thing to hear statistics, but a whole other thing to actually be able to see what the person is talking about.
April 16, 2012 at 8:47 PM
DPorter said…
I think that all of the powerpoints have been really good. They have all been extremely informative so far. It has seemed that everyone has known what they were talking about in their presentation. For the most part none of the presentations have had to much text in their slides. Pictures and charts have made it easy to follow along and understand.
April 16, 2012 at 8:49 PM
Yamila Monge said…
Overall I feel that the presentations have gone quite well. The presenters are well prepared on their topic and covered all of the points that they were asked to cover. Although one thing that I have noticed is that my peers have the tendency to read off of the slides rather than present the slides. It takes away from the presentation and I focus more on the fact that they are reading the slide rather than topic they covering. Other than that I feel like the presenters are doing well and it's an issue that can be easily remedied.
April 16, 2012 at 8:53 PM
BabyRuth93 said…
Overall I would say that all of Friday's presentations were
successful. Out of all the presentations that occured on friday the
one i remember the most was the holly springs one. I'm not 100% sure
why thats the one I remember the most, but if i had to guess I would
say it was because it was quick and to the point. I also like the way
the information was organized in some of the slides.
April 16, 2012 at 9:22 PM
Megan T Stahl said…
Out of all the presentations I have seen so far, I would say the ones that seem the best are the one's that are most aesthetically pleasing. If the colors flow well together, special effects compliment the slides, and there isn't too much text on each slide. Of course the information is important but when it comes to a powerpoint presentation, how it looks really makes or breaks the presentation. My favorite power points that I would consider "good" are the ones with the most aesthetically pleasing elements.
April 16, 2012 at 11:20 PM
Emily Gower said…
Out of all the presentations that have been given the ones that stand out the most didn't do so because they had transitions or videos; rather they stood out because the presenters knew their content. Specifically people who picked a region that they were familiar with were the most interesting projects as it gave more insight to the area.
April 16, 2012 at 11:27 PM
Rebecca Purvis said…
I feel as though the most memorable presentations from last week were the ones that talked about real and devastating environmental problems. I specifically remember one about Pakistan and how crowded and dirty the particular city was. The pictures that were chosen and the descriptions that the presenter gave really made these images and the entire presentation remain in my mind. Another presentation that stuck in my mind was one about overpopulation in China since it is such a huge environmental problem. I feel as though these presenters made me remember them the most because they talked about such detrimental environmental problems and they conveyed their message successfully. It was also interesting to hear about people's hometowns and to learn more about places that I had never even heard of!
April 17, 2012 at 12:14 AM
Shraddha Sainath said…
Everyone did a very good job in their presentations. Among all the presentations, I loved the ones that included videos. I personally feel adding videos to a presentation attracts the viewers and creates an impact. Every viewer’s attention ebbs away after a while. We are not able to hold on to every single information incorporated into the slides. Hence the best way to grab the attention or summarize one’s presentation would be to add a video. Also, there were a few presentations that only concentrated on describing the beauty of the ‘place’. I felt the aim of the presentation was to profile a place and focus on its environmental issue. Some presentations lacked that piece of information. Overall, everyone’s slides consisted of beautiful relevant pictures. It would not be fair to single out a presentation as I remember all the places that were chosen gathered new information from all of them. I would like to present mine in a similar manner learning from their experiences.
April 17, 2012 at 9:39 AM
Mike_hint said…
The presentations that stood out the most to me where the ones with the most visual representations of things. I remember Kendra's and Jerick’s presentation because of the photos. I also remember Christan’s because he put Egypt's national anthem video in his. I remembered those because of the many visuals and not to much reading.
April 17, 2012 at 1:16 PM
CameronI said…
In my opinion, most people did a great job. There were no bad presentations that stuck out to me. I liked how many of the presentations incorporated a lot of animation and different effects for the slides transitions. On the other hand, I did not like it when people read directly off the slides. I do not remember people doing that for the whole presentation, but many people did do it occasionally. Overall, I think the presentations were great. They were very interesting and engaging.
April 17, 2012 at 2:00 PM
Reid Trexler said…
Everyone has been doing well on the power point presentations. It's really difficult to share a power point when you don't know when you are going to present so I have a lot of respect for those who have gone. I am enjoying these presentations mainly because I don't know a whole lot about these topics and I'm learning a lot. I am looking forward to the presentations to come as well as presenting my power point!
April 17, 2012 at 2:25 PM
IPatrick said…
So far i believe the the presentations have been good. People seem to know what they are talking about and the slides have been very viewer friendly with many pictures and graphics as opposed to an overwhelming amount of words.
April 19, 2012 at 1:31 PM
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