Lucas Vanegas Post 1

 

Presentation Reflection

After the presentation of the four groups, I feel that all the groups performed very well in the presentation.The groups were able to communicate on their respective topics and discuss the information that was provided to them for discussion. Each group presented a topic using a different style of presentation; however, I feel that all the groups worked hard and completed their project. It was also great fun watching all the presentations through Zoom. At first, I felt that presenting using Zoom will be difficult; however, after watching the way in which all the presentations were done, I have come to the conclusion that it is a very effective method of presenting if the team members are not in one place.

One of the things that I realized during my viewing of the presentations was that each team had some strength of its own. While some teams had excellent confidence while speaking, others had Powerpoint slides which were easy to understand. I also realized that different people had different styles of presenting themselves. Some of the people spoke in a natural way, without being too dependent on their slides, while others depended quite heavily on their slides. In my opinion, all teams did well and there was nothing bad about any of the presentations.

The first thing that came to my mind was the sheer amount of words on some slides. The slides I saw contained probably more than 100 words on one slide. It caught my attention because in high school my teachers used to tell us never to read from the slide in a presentation. They were saying that the PowerPoint presentation should only serve as support for the actual presentation, giving an audience something to remember from the presentation. That is why seeing so much information on some slides seemed a little informal for me. When there is too much information on the slide, the audience can have troubles figuring out which pieces of information they should pay attention to. In addition, too much information on one slide can also encourage a presenter to read it instead of talking about the information.

In my opinion, the less amount of words, pictures, bullet points, and any other visual elements there are in the PowerPoint presentation, and the more detailed explanation is offered by the speaker himself/herself, the more effective and interesting presentation it becomes. In such a way, listeners have an opportunity to listen to the presenter and not read a lot of text on the slide. But I understand that sometimes it could be needed to include a bigger amount of information into presentation due to Zoom. In any case, in my opinion, the groups did good in presenting their topics.

Another aspect that I have noticed about group work is the importance of communication when working together. I believe that communication is one of the key factors in which my group excels. We had good communication with one another in the entire process of our group project. We were constantly exchanging text messages almost on daily basis regarding the presentation and just to make sure that everyone is updated on what is happening. We also discussed the deadline, things that are supposed to be done and who is responsible for what.

The ability to always be able to communicate made the group assignment easier and less stressful as well. In addition to that, everybody had a role to play and keep up-to-date about everything. When a doubt would arise, we could always text our group for clarification. We also knew about the deadline of the presentation, so we could always be ready before the deadline. This is something I think I would carry forward into my future group assignments.

One more thing that I found out while watching the presentations was that presenting via Zoom required the skills of presenting face-to-face along with several other peculiarities. Thus, one needed to make sure that his/her screen was properly shared, the microphone worked, and he/she stayed focused on the presentation and camera. Although there was no need to stand in front of the audience, it was necessary to communicate and maintain the audience engaged. It seems to me that all of us managed to cope quite well with the format provided by Zoom despite the fact that it could be more complicated than classroom presenting. 

Overall, I found myself enjoying all four presentations and how different each one took the project from. Everyone did great and put effort into delivering the information they had. But the most significant thing that I would personally change about all the presentations is the information on the PowerPoint slides. Considering my experience in school, I believe that the presentation will look more professional when there are less words and the slides are used more as support for the presentation. However, each of us had his/her way of presenting the work, and in my opinion, what is most important is that we all delivered our information.

In addition, I am positive that our group proved how essential communication and preparation were. As we communicated on a daily basis, took care of the deadline, and made sure that everybody knows what to do, we managed to prepare for this assignment successfully. On the whole, the presentations made me understand what is needed for a successful presentation. What is more, I am confident that good communication, preparation, presentation skills, and arranging slides on PowerPoint can make a great difference. Most importantly, I think that it is excellent that we have an opportunity to present our work using Zoom and develop our presentation skills despite the fact that we may not be in the same room.