Presentation Reflection

In this blog, I will be listing various mistakes I've made and reflect on how I could've delivered a better and more intriguing presentation. We were insisted not to fix our slides, but I accidentally changed my slides right after presenting to enhance them (also because I was going to show my slides at JALT's workshop). 

There were a few areas I was satisfied with throughout my presentation. For example, since my book was based on teenagers and the story predominantly was based in a school, I had lined paper as a background of several slides creating repetition. Looking back at my presentation video, my posture was constantly kept in a confident way and with open chests to look comfortable speaking. I engaged with my audience by having them answer my questions and I could tell the significant majority was listening closely to what I spoke, which was relieving. Luckily, I did not forget any elements I wanted to speak, and there was no need to omit anything so for the most part, it went pretty satisfactorily. 

Areas of melioration: 

1. White text on a light background

One fault that could be pointed out was my 6th slide where white text and a light background had overlapped. This caused a letter to be misread and it was in need of tweaking the text position. When creating this presentation, I came across this problem but even if I tried moving it, other parts of the text would merge into the bright background. Moreover, on my computer, it was still legible so I did not take it as a serious problem. Notwithstanding the copious times I've presented using the school's mediocre projector, I did not make this a priority which was a significant mistake. After presenting and seeing that slide in my video, I quickly shifted it so that the text does not camouflage into the background picture. 

2. Photo credit list

My references page was sorted using Zotero, so there was absolutely no problem. Everything was aligned, in alphabetical order, and the format was constructed to perfection. My photo credit list had properly listed all the references of where I obtained the images, and the pictures were aligned, easy to view. However, my shortened bitly link had random numbers and letters in the back half of the link. This is customizable, and having an easy title for the image in the link will make it drastically easier for the audience to go see or acquire these pictures themselves. I've already interchanged these links after fixing the problem and now it is much better. 

3. Eye contact

When presenting and standing in front of everyone, I had been conscious and tried my very best to constantly be making eye contact with the audience. As a speaker, post-presenting, I thought I had done a decent job since I was able to make eye contact with everyone in the room. Despite my assuring feeling of success in this area, looking at my video was disappointing. I found myself looking up at the ceiling from time to time instead of right into the audience's eyes. During the presentation, I shifted my attention towards the screen behind me to point at a few pictures I wanted to elaborate on, which is acceptable. Nevertheless, there is definitely room for improvement in my non-verbal communication, more specifically my eye contact, to have a more inclusive and engaging presentation that would actually have the audience consider and scrutinize reading the book. 

4. Summary slide 

Watching innumerable amounts of presentation that followed, I noticed a huge flaw in the presentation slide I was so surprised I was not aware of it. My summary slide consisted of three pictures that represented each main point of my presentation. I realized I did not have keywords that would compensate these pictures and make it a more meaningful summary slide. I've now added a keyword per picture to go along with each other in constituting my three segments. 

5. Speaking too fast

Watching through my video, I was speaking way too speedily and it may have been a little overwhelming for the audience. My overall time was under the time limit so there is definitely room for slower and clearer speaking! 

6. Keywords missing on a few slides

After hearing Mr.Paterson mention a lack of keywords in some slides for a classmate, I realized I hadn't incorporated a single word in some of my slides. For 2 or 3 slides, I only had a full-size picture that represented or compensated what I was speaking. It may have been enough to deliver the message I was trying to get across, but adding in a few words would've definitely enhanced the clarity and understandability. For example, for the negative point in my critique section, I had an image that symbolized ludicrously explained adults. However, it may have been difficult to fully comprehend that message just from the slides, so I added in the words "Misperception of occupations".