Presentation & Workshop Overviews
This presentation list is updated on a regular basis as are the presentations. Please understand that the descriptions provided should just be considered a starting point. Presentations are regularly customized to meet the specific needs of the audience.
Separate versions for students, school board, corporate groups, parents and community members are available. Go to the handouts page for background materials and more than 50 regularly updated handouts that can be downloaded.
Workshop Descriptions
HALF AND FULL DAY FACILITATIONS
Windows on the Future: Thinking About Tomorrow Today
Today, in a world where change is the constant, you can't trust your eyes. As a result, the implications of global trends can only be understood by seeing them as part of the continuum from where these trends have come from to where they're heading. By carefully examining the significance of seven exponential trends (Moore's Law, Photonics, the Internet, InfoWhelm, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, and Neuroinformatics) this presentation profoundly challenges your fundamental assumptions about the world we live and the future that awaits us. It explores the impact these trends will have on our lives both personally and professionally and considers how they are and will affect our children, our learning institutions, the nature of teaching and learning, and even our definition of intelligence.
With this as a context, the presentation then outlines how these changes will affect the classroom, the curriculum, learning, instruction, evaluation and assessment. It identifies the shift in curriculum and thinking necessary to equip students for success in the 21st century, and discusses what this signifies for education, specifically in terms of our staff development models.
How can schools prepare students for this world? Perhaps by focusing simultaneously on content and information processes, critical thinking, problem solving, information fluency, useful failure, project-based learning and new mindsets that will be needed to survive in the culture of the 21st Century. How do we effectively engage learners so that they can not only perform exceptionally well on state exams, but also simultaneously learn the critical twenty-first century fluencies needed to excel in both school and life?
It then takes a pragmatic look at traditional teaching practices, considers why they are becoming increasingly out of sync with our rapidly changing world; and identifies several principles and processes that transcend the new technologies. Participants will come away from the presentation with a clear understanding of how to meet both their curricular goals, as well as prepare students to meet the new realities of the 21st Century. Included is an overview of the 4Ds (Define, Design, Develop, and Debrief), the 7-layered curriculum model (content, process, tools, school to career, school to community, school to home, and contiguous assessment) , the 5As (Asking good questions, Accessing data, Analyzing and Authenticating data, Applying data turned to knowledge, and Assessing process and product) as well as a variety of resources to support the transition to this new model. Participants should come prepared to have many of their present assumptions about education challenged. Counseling will be provided.
Presentation type: Half/Full day, interactive workshop
Theme: Technology driven change and its impact on our institutions
Audience: Leadership and Vision
Duration: Five hours
UPDATED JANUARY 2009
Into Tomorrow: Looking at the Extreme Future
It is said that those who live by the crystal ball shall eat crushed glass. Invariably when futurists make predictions we can be certain of two things. First, in many cases it will longer than we predict for some things to happen. But conversely, when they happen the impact will be far more pervasive than any of us can imagine.
This presentation is about the extreme future 10, 15, 20 or more years out. This is not a crystal ball, Ouija board future, but an educated and informed look ahead at the good, the bad, the ugly, the scary, the beautiful, the terrifying and the sublime.
Participants will be given an overview of the Extreme Future: the new Energy Age, the new Innovation Economy, the future of globalization, Moore's Law revisited, the new Age of Communication, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Neurotechnology, the new workforce, longevity medicine, tomorrow's climate, weird science and the future of the individual - and then be asked what the Extreme Future holds for the way we work, the way we play, the way we communicate, the way we learn and the way we view our fellow citizens.
This presentation is not for the faint of heart. Come and get your assumptions about almost everything challenges.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours
NEW JANUARY 2009
Powerful Teaching Strategies For 21st Century Learners
We all know the future will be greatly impacted by the development of new digital tools. But have we considered what the digital world is doing to the students that enter our classrooms?
This workshop begins by exploring the effect digital bombardment has on digital kids in the new digital landscape, and considers the profound implications this holds for the future of education. What does the latest neuroscientific and psychological research tell us about the role of intense and frequent experiences on the brain, particularly the young and impressionable brain? Based on the research, what inferences can we make about kids' digital experiences and how these experiences are wiring and shaping their cognitive processes? More importantly, what are the implications for teaching, learning and assessment in the new digital landscape?
But there's more to consider if we are going to get a complete picture of what instruction will look like in the future. How can we reconcile these new findings with current instructional practices, particularly in a climate of standards and accountability driven by high stakes testing for all? What strategies can we use to appeal to the learning preferences and communication needs of digital learners while at the same time honoring our traditional practices and assumptions related to teaching, learning and assessment?
The implications of how digital kids process, interact, and communicate in current learning environments and effective instructional strategies are examined against current findings from the social, psychological, and neurosciences as to how effective teaching and learning occurs.
The presentation then provides a comprehensive profile of 10 core learning attributes of digital learners and 10 core teaching and learning strategies that can be used to appeal to their digital lifestyle and learning preferences.
The presentation then looks at the modern workplace and examines the new entry skills students will need to be successful in the digitally infused working environment. How has the world of work changed? How is it likely to change in the future? What are the new thinking skills workers will require? And how must we shift instruction to ensure we are equipping our students with these skills?
A new model of instruction to address these issues is then introduced. Learn how schools can use a research-based constructivist approach to encourage students to search for understandings - and still have student excel at the test.
This presentation focuses on a fundamental shift in the basic paradigm of teaching that is required to prepare students for the Communication and Information Age. It provides a pragmatic look at current teacher practices and explains why they are becoming increasingly out of synch with our rapidly changing world. It then asks how we can teach effectively in an age when new technologies cascade onto the new digital landscape at an astonishing rate and identifies the principles and processes that transcend these new technologies.
Participants will come away from the presentation with a clear understanding of various research-based strategies that can be used to optimize learning by the digital generation in the new digital landscape, how to address learning standards and improve test scores, while at the same time, meeting both curricular goals and preparing students with the skills, knowledge and understandings above and beyond content recall necessary to meet the new realities of the 21st Century. Co-developed with Ted McCain.
Presentation type: Half day, full day interactive workshop
Theme: What current research tells us about learning
Audience: Leadership and Vision
Duration: Three to five hours
UPDATED JANUARY 2009
Keynote & Spotlight Descriptions
DIGITAL TRENDS & 21st CENTURY LEARNERS
Our Children Are Not the Students Our Schools Were Designed For: Understanding Digital Kids
Today's world is not the world we grew up in; and today's world is certainly not the world our children will live in. Because of the dramatic changes our world has undergone, today's digital kids are not the students our schools were designed for; and our students are not the students today's teachers were trained to teach.
This keynote examines the effect digital bombardment from constant exposure to digital media has on digital kids in the new digital landscape and considers the profound implications this holds for the future of education. What does the latest neuroscientific and psychological research tell us about the role of intense and frequent experiences on the brain, particularly the young and impressionable brain?
Based on the research, what inferences can we make about kids' digital experiences and how these experiences are re-wiring and re-shaping their cognitive processes? More importantly, what are the implications for teaching, learning and assessment in the new digital landscape?
How can we reconcile these new developments with current instructional practices particularly in a climate of standards and accountability driven by high stakes testing for all? What strategies can we use to appeal to the learning preferences and communication needs of digital learners while at the same time honoring our traditional assumptions and practices related to teaching, learning and assessment?
Participants should prepare to have their assumptions about children and how they learn seriously challenged.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to three hours
UPDATED JANUARY 2009
Creating Learning Environments For 21st Century Learners: Education in the New Digital Landscape
Because of digital bombardment and the emergence of the new digital landscape, "digital natives" process information, interact, and communicate in fundamentally different ways than any previous generation before them. Meanwhile, many of us, having grown up in a relatively low-tech, stable, and predictable world, are at best, "digital immigrants," struggling with the unprecedented speed of change, technological innovation, overwhelming amounts of information, and the fundamental uncertainty of today's world.
The implications of how digital kids process, interact, and communicate in traditional learning environments and with current instructional strategies and assumptions are examined against current findings from the social, psychological, and neurosciences as to how effective teaching and learning occurs.
This presentation provides a comprehensive profile of 10 core learning attributes of digital learners and 10 core teaching, learning and assessment strategies that can be used to appeal to their digital lifestyle and learning preferences.
Participants will leave the presentation with a clear understanding of various research-based strategies they need to consider in order to optimize learning for the digital generation in the new digital landscape.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to three hours
UPDATED JANUARY 2009
Teaching in the New Digital Landscape: New Visions For 21st Century Teaching, Learning & Assessment
In an education system that emphasizes standards and high-stakes tests, is it realistic or even possible to encourage students to think, explore and develop their own understanding? Learn how schools can develop a research-based constructivist model to encourage students to search for understandings - while at the same time still have student excel at the tests. This presentation focuses on a fundamental shift in the basic paradigm of teaching that is required to prepare digital students for the Communication and Information Age. It provides a pragmatic look at current teacher practices and explains why they are becoming increasingly out of synch with our rapidly changing world. It then asks how we can teach effectively in an age when new technologies cascade onto the new digital landscape at an astonishing rate and identifies the principles and processes that transcend these new technologies.
Participants will come away from the presentation with a clear understanding of how to address learning standards and improve test scores to meet both curricular goals, as well as strategies that will prepare students to meet the new realities of the 21st Century. Included is an overview of the 7-layered curriculum model (content, process, tools, school to career, school to community, school to home, and contiguous assessment),the 5A's as well as a variety of inexpensive and free resources that can be used to to support the transition to this new model. Participants should come prepared to have many of their present assumptions about education challenged. Counseling will be provided. Co-developed with Ted McCain.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout session, interactive workshop
Theme: Curriculum Trends
Audience: Leadership and Vision
Duration: One to three hours
UPDATED JANUARY 2009
Living on the Future Edge: Thinking About Tomorrow Today
In a world where change is the constant you can't trust your eyes because what you see will replaced tomorrow. You think your eyes are showing you reality, in fact, they are showing you history. The only way to see the reality of a world on the move is to look for global trends. By carefully examining the significance of several global exponential trends, this presentation profoundly challenges your fundamental assumptions about the world we live and the future that awaits us.
The presentation begins by examining the culture of TTWWADI (That's The Way We've Always Done It and considers the role of TTWWADI in our unconscious assumptions about schools and learning,
It then explores global exponential trends and considers the effect these trends are having (and will have) on our lives both personally and professionally; and considers how they will affect our children, our learning institutions, the nature of teaching and learning, and even our definition of intelligence.
With this as a context, the presentation then examines how these changes will affect the classroom, the curriculum, learning, instruction, evaluation and assessment. It identifies the shift in curriculum and thinking necessary to equip students for success in the 21st century, and discusses what this signifies for education, specifically in terms of our staff development models.
How can schools prepare students for this ever-changing world? Perhaps by developing an instructional and learning strategy that simultaneously focuses on content and 21st century skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, information and technological fluency, useful failure, project-based learning and metacognitive skills needed to survive in the culture of the 21st Century.
It then examines the big question. How do we effectively engage learners so that they can not only perform exceptionally well on state exams, but also simultaneously learn the critical twenty-first century literacies needed to excel in both school and life?
It then takes a pragmatic look at traditional teaching practices, considers why they are becoming increasingly out of sync with our rapidly changing world; and identifies several principles and processes that transcend the new technologies.
Participants will come away from the presentation with a clear understanding of how to meet both their curricular goals, as well as prepare students to meet the new realities of the 21st Century. Included is an overview of the 7-layered curriculum model (content, process, tools, school to career, school to community, school to home, and contiguous assessment) as well as a variety of resources to support the transition to this new model. Participants should come prepared to have many of their present assumptions about education challenged. Counseling will be provided.
This is truly a twelve aspirin presentation.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Change, Technology Trends, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to three hours
UPDATED JANUARY 2009
Into Tomorrow: Looking at the Extreme Future
It is said that those who live by the crystal ball shall eat crushed glass. Invariably when futurists make predictions we can be certain of two things. First, in many cases it will longer than we predict for some things to happen. But conversely, when they happen the impact will be far more pervasive than any of us can imagine.
This presentation is about the extreme future 10, 15, 20 or more years out. This is not a crystal ball, Ouija board future, but an educated and informed look ahead at the good, the bad, the ugly, the scary, the beautiful, the terrifying and the sublime.
Participants will be given an overview of the Extreme Future: the new Energy Age, the new Innovation Economy, the future of globalization, Moore's Law revisited, the new Age of Communication, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Neurotechnology, the new workforce, longevity medicine, tomorrow's climate, weird science and the future of the individual - and then be asked what the Extreme Future holds for the way we work, the way we play, the way we communicate, the way we learn and the way we view our fellow citizens.
This presentation is not for the faint of heart. Come and get your assumptions about almost everything challenges.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours
NEW JANUARY 2009
Literacy Isn't Enough: 21st Century Fluency For the Digital Age
Powerful technologies and information systems have precipitated a parallel change in the knowledge base. Facts become obsolete faster and knowledge built on these facts become less durable. InfoWhelm is causing societies to reorganize their knowledge and breaking down the boundaries between conventional disciplines. This is fundamentally altering the very fabric of our society - affecting the way we work, play, communicate, view our fellow citizens, how we learn, and what's important for us to know. Yet schools in their structure, operation, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment models remain largely the same as they have for decades.
This session outlines exactly what InfoWhelm is, and why it's essential that students develop the essential 21st Century Fluency skills needed to operate in the fundamentally different living, working and learning environment of the 21st Century. Being fluent involves learning a transparent, unconscious, internalized process that's as natural as riding a bike. A focus on fluency rather than literacy requires educators to fundamentally rethink current assumptions about teaching, learning and assessment.
It then identified how Informational, Technological and Media Fluency can be taught in the same structured manner that Mathematics, the Sciences, Social Studies/History and Languages are taught - embedded at every grade level, in every subject area, the responsibility of every teacher throughout the entire school experience.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours
NEW JANUARY 2009
From Gutenberg to Gates to Google and Beyond: .EDU meets .COM
As Gutenberg's printing press ignited the Renaissance, computers, the Internet, networking and now Google are igniting the Digital Renaissance. Emerging technologies will have a profound effect on the near and distant future of education. Fundamental change will happen whether schools, as learning institutions, embrace it or not because kids, teachers and parents will be using digital tools and accessing the Internet from home, at night, and outside of the purview of the school. They, rather than our traditions and traditional assumptions about learning and assessment will ultimately influence the direction of schools and learning.
What happens when the people outside of education who are building information infrastructures start effectively leveraging the immense power of new technologies to deliver instructional opportunities to the YouTube and MySpace generation? What will education look like as we make a major shift in the who, what, when, where, why and how of teaching and learning which will be a direct result of the emergence of the Internet of a full-fledged commercial medium? And where is Google taking us?
This presentation asks participants to reconsider the future of education as we move from Gutenberg to Gates to Google and beyond. Co-developed with Ted McCain.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout
Theme: Future Visioning
Audience: General
Duration: One hour
Handout: From Gutenberg to Gates to Google and Beyond
UPDATED NOVEMBER 2008
Beyond TTWWADI (That's the Way We've Always Done It)
It's amazing how we can embrace doing things the way they have always been done without examining where the original decisions came from. We just accept a pre-existing mind-set because it's the path of least resistance. For example, the mind-set for the structure of our schools is based on decisions that were made in the days of the horse, buggy, kerosene lamp, factory floor, and production line. It's a system in which most students are still released for 3 months each summer so that they can harvest the crops based on some European agricultural cycle. This is classic TTWWADI (That's The Way We've Always Done It).
Accepting this preexisting mind-set of what schools look like is easy because they haven't changed that much in a long time. Most educators embrace the entrenched ideas about schools and learning without thinking. However, the world is no longer the stable and predictable place it once was. Technology is fueling an engine of change that is making the world a moving target. What is startling is that the rate of change is picking up speed with each passing day. Radical new developments in technology are having increasingly profound implications for life as we know it. In this environment of change, it is critical that we begin to question the rationale behind TTWWADI in our schools.
This presentation examines the development of our current mind-set for what schools look like. It traces the source of many of the foundational assumptions we take for granted in public education. It then looks at some of the key areas of technological development that are putting pressure on schools to change and explore the implications these developments have for what new skills and habits-of-mind we should be emphasizing in our schools to prepare students for life in the 21st century.
We will examine the power of TTWWADI and discuss the difficulties we face in shifting people's ideas to a new vision for schools and learning. Finally, we will suggest a number of ways educators must change in order to keep up with a world on the move, a world that is forcing us to face a fundamental question about the nature of education: Do we prepare them for the world of tomorrow, or the farms and factories of yesterday?
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout session, workshop
Theme: Curriculum Trends
Audience: Leadership and Vision
Duration: One to three hours
Handout: New Visions for Teaching and Learning
UPDATED NOVEMBER 2008
Into Tomorrow: Moving the Educational Debate
In the digital age, why do children continue to be herded into large buildings? Why are subjects fragmented into “periods” lasting from 45 to 60 minutes, regardless of whether the topic is simple or complex? Why are learning activities often unrelated to student interests, purposes and meaning? Why is testing still primarily limited to paper/pencil tests that largely ignore genuine performance? It's time for us to carefully examine the assumptions that underpin schools today and move the educational debate. It's time to reinvent schools and move education to a deeper level.
This presentation examines the real education reform that will not succeed until the adults in charge of education create a new mental model for learning that embraces the future. The answers are already there. But educators need to carefully reconsider how to reinvent teaching, rethink learning, and refocus assessment and evaluation in order to better engage students in the meaningful, complex learning experiences. they will need to operate in the new digital landscape.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout session, workshop
Theme: Curriculum Trends
Audience: Leadership and Vision
Duration: One to three hours
Handout: Moving the Educational Debate
UPDATED NOVEMBER 2008
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be: 15 Ways to Be a Smarter Teacher
Have you noticed that education has become a full contact sport? For example, when is the last time they took something OUT of the curriculum? How do we cope with a world in which teachers are expected to do more and more with less and less? How do we, in the Age of Standards and High Stakes Testing, provide ALL students with the essential skills and knowledge and habits of mind that they will need to survive, let alone thrive in the age characterized by the tyranny of the urgent?
This presentation outlines 15 simple strategies that educators can use to transform the learning experience while at the same time addressing the new emphasis on teacher and administrator accountability.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, workshop
Theme: Educational Trends, Leadership and Vision
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours
Handout: The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
UPDATED NOVEMBER 2008
BUILDING SCHOOLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
Teaching the Digital Generation: No More Cookie Cutter Schools
Based on the new book of the same name, this presentation examines the traditional assumptions behind school design (TTWWADI - that's the way we've always done it) and considers why TTWWADI will not work in the New Digital Landscape. It then examines the traditional industrial age high school and assesses its characteristics using a graphics equalizer with 20 measures:
Focus on teaching versus learning
Focus on group versus individual teaching and learning
Focus on traditional teaching versus digital learning
Focus on traditional versus 21st-century thinking skills
Assessment
Learning focus
Instructional organization
Application of learning
Responsibility for learning
Time related to school year
Time related to school day
Student support structures
Student learning spaces
Spatial flexibility
Scalability of school size
Course offerings
Extracurricular activities
Costs - staff
Costs - facilities
The presentation then examines 10 models for high school design that explore varied combinations of instruction, technology, time, architecture and costs. These model schools include:
Academies
Instructional Centers
Academic Focus
Learning labs
Self-directed Learning
Tlme - Less + More schools
Individualized Instruction schools
Cyber schools now and in the future
Diverse Learning Communities on a Campus
Diverse High Schools in a District
Each of these differentiated models is examined relative to these same 20 elements and illustrated via a graphic equalizer. Questions conclude the description of each model asking the reader to reflect on their own school relative to the teaching and learning environment delineated.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Teaching, Learning, Assessment, Future of Schools
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours
NEW JANUARY 2009
Loaded Terms: How Language Constrains Our Thinking About Teaching and Learning
In the creation of new schools and the reconsideration of existing schools, we very often start with assumptions about the most important aspects of schooling and proceed directly to haggling over details. We assume that the school will have classrooms 'owned' by teachers, that each teacher and classroom will be focused on a single subject, that we will teach classes (vs. individuals) in those classrooms, that the school year and day will be fixed and meted out in regular periods marked by bells, that teachers will be the ultimate source for content, that learning will be measured by tests, grades and time---AND that technology will at best complement all these assumptions.
TTWWADI (That's The Way We've Always Done It) is a truly powerful force that shapes our thinking, and our vocabulary is a shortcut by which we apply TTWWADI to our work. The words we use to describe our schools are loaded with meanings about the relationships between teaching/learning, technology, time, facilities, costs, curriculum, attendance zones, parity, teachers, classes, counselors, lockers-etc. When we use these terms without digging into all that they imply, we limit our ability to find new ways to teach and learn, and to realize the full potential of technology to advance and transform education.
The objective of the presentation is to explore many of the terms most commonly used in education with the intention of making it easier for us to create schooling that is really suited for the needs of students in the 21st century. Our intent is not to give participants new or expanded definitions for these terms, but to help them to reflect upon, sort out and challenge all the meanings these words have and to find new ways for teaching and learning.
Windows on the Future Revisited: New Schools For the New World
By now, most people have realized that the world is no longer the stable and predictable place that it once even just a few short years ago. There are many who say that the changes in the next 5 years will absolutely dwarf those of the last 50 years.
What impact will this changing world have on education? What will learning look like? How will learning be assessed? What skills in learners and educators will be most highly valued? And how can educators design effective learning environments in a world of accelerating change?
By taking a time machine 13 years into the future, this presentation explores the shift in curriculum and thinking that will be necessary to equip learners for success in the 21st century, and identifies what this signifies for education and educators. In a time when the primary focus increasingly seems to be on accountability, standards and high stakes testing, how can schools prepare students to be effective learners and educators to be more more effective teachers in a fundamentally different world than the one we grew up in?
Participants should come prepared to have many of their present assumptions about education challenged. Counseling will be provided. This presentation is based on the award-winning book, Windows on the Future, written by Ted McCain & Ian Jukes and published by Corwin Press.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, interactive workshop
Theme: Educational Trends, Leadership and Vision
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours
UPDATED JANUARY 2009
VISION AND CHANGE
Change is Hard, You Go First
Are you feeling overwhelmed with the challenge of change? Are you or your organization spinning your tires? Are you convinced that you'll never be able to help move your colleagues or institution from here to there? Why is it so difficult to change personal habits, to modify long-standing professional practices, or to help individuals and organizations beyond a fixation with the here and now? And how in the world can we possibly address the future needs of our children if we can't even get ourselves out of first gear?
This entertaining presentation explains, in very simple terms, why as individuals, so many of us are white knuckle about change. It then outlines five practical strategies that you can use to jump-start the process of getting you and your organization beyond your existing paradigm of life to where you and they need to be. Whether you're inside or outside education, whether you're early on in your career or already counting down to retirement, if you are frustrated with the challenge of facilitating change on a personal or professional level, this session is definitely for you.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, workshop
Theme: Future Visioning, Change in the Workplace
Audience: General
Duration: One to three hours
Handout: Change is Hard, You Go First
UPDATED DECEMBER 2008
TECHNOLOGY PLANNING
Getting It Right: Aligning Technology Initiatives for Measurable Student Results
The great American philosopher Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else". Twenty years and close to a hundred and twenty billion dollars on, we still seem to be making it up as we go. Large scale spending for technology has had little impact for measurable student results.
This session is designed to help educational leaders and decision-makers wade through the complexities of technology planning. The presentation outlines a simple, yet comprehensive 10-point strategy of alignment that will ensure that technology initiatives are effectively linked and aligned with instructional goals. Participants will come away from this presentation with a clear understanding of how to address state standards, improve test scores, meet their curricular requirements, provide relevant staff development, and provide measurable accountability for expenditures, while at the same time, ensuring that students are effectively prepared with the skills and knowledge they will need to cope with the new realities of the 21st Century.
Presentation type: Keynote, breakout, workshop
Theme: Leadership and Vision, Planning and Implementation
Audience: General
Duration: One to five hours
Handout: Getting It Right
UPDATED NOVEMBER 2008
CREATING POWERFUL PRESENTATIONS
Bringing Down the House: How to Create Knock Your Socks Off Presentations
Making presentations with electronic tools like PowerPoint and Keynote have gone from being a novelty to a necessity in a few short years. Today, a great many people in a wide range of fields are using these tools to educate, inform, persuade, and sell. However, presenters are often disappointed with the response to their efforts. Unfortunately, there is much more to creating an effective presentation than just learning how to use the software or knowing your subject.
This presentation focuses on the other skills you need to make great presentations. There are lots of people who can teach you how to use presentation software. This workshop will teach you how to communicate your message. The workshop is intensive and hands-off.
Participants will be provided with an overview of all of the technical and conceptual elements that will allow them to design, deliver, and critique powerful electronic presentations.
The elements of this workshop will include the following:
doing the research;
understanding your audience;
preparing the elements of the presentation;
sequencing ideas;
utilizing the principles of graphical design for effective communication;
preparing yourself for presentations;
organizing the presentation area for greatest impact;
the technical elements for delivering powerful presentations;
using emotional language
how to reveal yourself
the power of humor
moving an audience to action
managing an audience; and
analyzing your performance.
Specific aspects of the workshop include:
1.The top ten principles of planning presentation before using presentation software;
-starting with the end in mind
-the power of research
-framing an outline
-building first drafts
-choosing a presentation structure
-creating a presentation style
-building effective opening
-shaping the body of your message
-organizing flow
-the power of repetition
-writing for the ear
-surviving novelty bumps
2. The top ten principles of effective presentation design using presentation software;
-ensuring consistently
-using templates
-using text effectively
-using special effects
-streamlining materials
-chop, chop, chop
-breaking down your message
-cutting down to bare bones
-edit, edit, edit
3. The top ten principles of graphical design using presentation software;
-the power of the human eye
-images that reinforce message
-considerations when using images
-effective harts & graphs
-assuring technical quality
-the power of apparent motion
-the impact of color on the audience
-visual contrast
-visual balance
-assessing overall design effectiveness
4. The top ten principles of presentation delivery.
-Tactics to bring your talk to life
-What to do to calm down
-How to lower the pressure
-Understanding your audience
-Room, equipment, time, & other important considerations
-Survival strategies for your Q & A
-Rehearsing your speech
-Tips on what you can do just before you start speaking
-Body language, personal style, & dress
-Knowing thy audience
This workshop is not about how to use PowerPoint or Keynote. It's about how to design powerful and persuasive presentations in order to communicate effectively with a wide variety of audiences for a wide range of purposes. Participants will be provided with a 50-page handout.
Presentation type: Workshop
Theme: Effective Communications Strategies
Audience: General
Duration: Five hours to three days
Handout: Creating Powerful Presentations
UPDATED FEBRUARY 2008
