One of the worst things that can happen if you are presenting your project, is to see that people are bored, or that they don’t pay attention to what you’re saying.
That being said, when asked, people usually say that one of their biggest nightmares (if not the biggest one) is to have a room full of people who are not listening to their presentation. And that is for a good reason. The whole point of presenting something is to get people to learn something, and to engage along the way. Unfortunately, considering the amount of presentations we have to create on a daily basis, it’s easy to start lacking ideas and creativity on how to make people listen to you.
On the other hand, it seems like everything we do, has to be created in the form of a presentation. What’s the reason behind this? The answer is simple. A presentation is not only a great way to express ideas and present the bullet points of any subject and topic, but it is also a great way to transfer information and it has been proven as the most effective way to learn new things (and revise the old ones). This is why the ability to create a good presentation is so important in our society. But is it always a simple thing to do? The answer is no. Especially if the topic, the lesson or a project is extremely complex, and it is hard to break it down in an interesting way. Grabbing someone’s attention is one thing, but keeping your audience concentrated for a longer period of time is something completely different.
Global changes when it comes to the pandemic and the global economy have also changed the way we perceive things, and more importantly – they changed our habits. This is especially the case with schools. What do we mean by this? Online classes have become the best, or even the only way to keep things going, and life normal, considering the fact that the pandemic is still not over, and it seems like things are pretty uncertain and unpredictable. However, online classes are full of limitations. If you thought that it’s hard to keep someone’s attention, then you have certainly attended at least one Zoom call, or at least one online class. In a modern era full of changes along with technological improvements and innovations, it’s hard to imagine that there are no solutions to make your presentation more interesting and engaging.
If you are not sure where to start and you want to improve your presentations, here are some tips and tricks on how to do that. You only need a bit of creativity and good gadgets:
1. Keep It Simple and Concise
Although this may not seem like a technological innovation, it has been proven that keeping your content simple, easy to understand and not distracting is the number one thing you can do if you want people to listen to your words, and absorb what you’re telling them. This is why it needs to be mentioned as the first and the most important tip you need to use. If you’re afraid that you are going to forget certain information that you were planning to present, simply spend a bit more time in preparing rather than making your presentation look cluttered and distracting. All the other things you can add are only a plus.
2. Imagery Is Outdated
The most common thing in any presentation whether it’s a presentation at work or at school is imagery. If you were adding images regularly in your presentations, then you might consider changing things a bit and using innovative technology. What do we mean by this? Opting for videos rather than photos has been proven to be much more effective when it comes to engaging and attention grabbing. Although videos in presentations are not a revolutionary thing, people are still not used to them and it’s easy to surprise them with good video content which is exactly what you want. However you would want to keep those videos short and sweet so maybe the best thing you can do is to incorporate GIFs into your presentation or short videos of some kind since adding long videos will be counterproductive and even worse than adding too much text.
3. Use Great Gadgets
Have you ever heard about document cameras? In case you haven’t it means that you’re missing a lot. Document cameras are a fantastic tool that has a huge variety of uses. A document camera are also called a digital visual presenter, doc camera, doc cam or visualizer, is one of the latest ways to add interactive and exciting visual technology to your presentation. When it comes to presentations this is one of the best things that can provide your audience with your classroom for a group of friends with a fantastic experience.
The biggest problem with live streams is the fact that they’re so different compared to classes, presentations or meetings that are happening in real life. This is exactly where document cameras can help you. Presentations and live streams that we’re all used to, have a simple flaw. That flaw is – not being able to provide different angles and perspectives. On the contrary, document cameras can help you feel like you’re in the room with your teacher, your employer or your employers,since you can point your camera to your presentation, whether it’s a paper presentation or a digital version of it. You can zoom, unzoom and change the perspective of the camera, which reminds of a real life situation that you would have in your office or your classroom.
However, the best thing about this tool is the fact that this camera can record the things from above allowing you to present your projects, even do experiments, change things live, work on certain things and be observed by your audience. Visit the site to find out more.
4. Make a Tag
Using your social media for educational purposes is not something that comes to your mind right away. However, if you think about it, it’s a very smart way to engage your students, friends or colleagues. You can create a hashtag or a special group on a social media of your choice and share some info about your presentation, your project or the event of your choice. Since we’re all on social media all the time, this will help us focus on useful things rather than just scrolling.