Category Archives: Powerpoint

Keynote Workshop

Keynote Workshop

Friday, October 2, 2015

11:00-11:50 AM

Digital Learning Commons

The legend of Keynote is that it was created specifically for Steve Jobs, who needed a program that he could use for presenting his annual keynote speeches to developers. Jobs was not happy with PowerPoint. He liked a program called Concurrence that he used in 1998, but it didn’t do everything he wanted. Because none of the available programs did what he wanted, he had a team work on a presentation program just for him. The software that became Keynote was used to present the iPod to the world in 2001. “Keynote was not originally designed to be a public software release, but the team built something so magical and so complete, Steve was convinced he would release the software to compete with PowerPoint.”

PowerPoint dominates the presentation field, although Prezi and Google Slides are becoming more commonly seen. Keynote, however, is a great program that is unused by many Mac owners (sorry, PC fans!), and those who do use it might not know everything you can do with it.

Come to this DLC workshop to learn how to build charts within Keynote, and how to use the advanced feature of Magic Charts which can animate your data, as well as Magic Move which allows creative, but elegant transitions. As with many features, a little goes a long way, so we will also talk about presentation design and how to avoid distracting your audience with too many of these tools.

Bring your laptop if you have Keynote, and try these tools during the workshop!

But I have Windows! or I want to use PowerPoint. While this workshop is focused on using the features within Keynote, the content will generally apply to creating presentations in other platforms as well. To explore similar features in Powerpoint, make an appointment at the DLC. If you want to try Keynote without switching to a Mac or buying the software, there are computers with Keynote installed that are available for student use at the DLC. There are options available for exporting Keynote slideshows to other platforms for presenting on Windows PCs and other computers that do not have Keynote.

Do ya Pecha Kucha?

Pe-cha-ku-cha? Hold up, before you think I’m insulting you, let’s talk about it.

Pecha Kucha literally means “chit-chat” in Japanese, but in this context, it’s a style and method of presenting. So when I ask, “Do ya Pecha Kucha?” what I mean to ask you is, do you know how to rapidly present an idea in 6 minutes and 40 seconds? Better yet, can you devote a mere 20 seconds to 20 different slides? Let me tell you, if Peter Shaw and Bob Cole can do it, I’m sure you can!

Just before spring break I lead an open-ended workshop with Peter Shaw that helped 20 GSTILE students contribute 20 seconds each to 20 pecha kucha slides for the TESOL department…

And this past Friday I watched Bob Cole freestyle a pecha kucha presentation using truly random assortment of slides. Needless to say it was AWESOME and it even included some audience participation, which caught us all off guard.

Bob Cole’s 20×20 about MIIS Happening and Pecha Kucha

Both the process and finished products of the presentations were quite amazing, so in the spirit of MIIS Happening and the upcoming Pecha Kucha Clinic on Friday, April 10th, let me share with you some key takeaways…

Pecha Kucha is direct
- 20 slides may seem like an overwhelming amount of space for content, but 20 seconds is a very short amount of time to present anything meaningful. There’s no room for slides full of text or complex diagrams. Every slide is a short, powerful chapter in a story. Peter used 20 still images from his class field trip to Bay View Academy, where his graduate students taught foreign languages to middle school students. The voice overs for those 20 slides came from 20 students in the session, so each student had to be very succinct in the soundbytes they provided. Each one used an average of only 50 words!
Pecha Kucha is engaging
- Styles vary even within Pecha Kucha, but the idea is to convey a meaningful message or story in a short amount of time. In a way, it’s a direct response to death by powerpoint. Pecha Kucha tends to bring a presenter’s points to life by giving them a relief point. After 20 seconds, the slide shifts whether they’re ready or not, so when presented live it tends to keep the attention of the audience, who deep down inside know that they only get 20 seconds to hear and see each point. It’s like a power point that’s adapted to our short attention spans! Bob was riffing, but great at keeping our attention. He even had a timer built into his slides, which you can find the template for on the MIIS Happening page.
Pecha Kucha is fun
- Unlike all the text above, Pecha Kucha is enjoyable to be a part of. On the back end I got to help Peter Shaw put together a fast-paced multimedia project using PowerPoint, Garageband, and Camtasia, and on the front end it’s fun to watch! Get a group of Pecha Kucha presenters together and you’ve got yourself a party… of sorts, which is exactly what MIIS Happening is!

I don’t want to spoil the details of the MIIS Happening event, so just take my word for it that Pecha Kucha is what’s happenin’ – so follow the link to get schooled and I’ll see you on Friday in the DLC from 10-11am!

Make a Narrated Video in PowerPoint

Welcome to today’s workshop on narrating and recording in PowerPoint!

Please sign in!

Make video

You can work with one of your own presentations, or you can use this template google presentation.
Download the presentation as a powerpoint file (click the image below to see how).