Have you ever asked a 20-year-old what they thought of the Beta video format? If so, you probably received a very quizzical look. Very few people in and around that age have ever heard of it. This is not to say that the Beta format was not good. In fact, it is far superior to VHS. Beta, however, was not marketed well and was never accepted by the public. For this reason, we as consumers have been living with an inferior product for years, awaiting better technologies, such as the Compact Disk and the Digital Video Disk. Perhaps this is reason to pause and consider why Beta never really survived in the market place.
The Beta video format was not marketed well from the start. The people developing the VHS format sold their product much more effectively despite the fact that it was an inferior product. Once a certain majority of people purchased the VHS players, Beta no longer had a chance. Movie producers were releasing their titles on VHS instead of Beta, so people continued to purchase VHS players. Beta quickly died out. What is the moral of this story?
Exercises
• Review Communication Techniques
• Develop Presentation Skills
Standards
This lesson meets standards for Science Content, Math, Language Arts, and Technology.
Key Terms
Evaluation
Student portfolios will be assessed and evaluated periodically as the year progresses.
Resources
Engineering: An Introduction to a Creative Profession, Fifth Edition, Macm Webster's New World Dictionary with Student Handbook, Concise Edition, Southwestern Company, 1978.
Beakley, George C., Evans, Donovan L., Keats, John Bertrand, Engineering: An Introduction to a Creative Profession, Fifth Edition, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986 ISBN 0-02-307090-0.
Lockhart, Shawna D., and Johnson, Cindy M., Engineering Design Communication: Conveying Design Through Graphics, Preliminary Edition, Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., 1999 ISBN 0-201-38042-0.
Hutchinson, John, and Karsnitz, John R., Teacher's Guide to Accompany Design and Problem Solving in Technology, Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 1997 ISBN 0-8273-5246-8.
Webster's New World Dictionary with Student Handbook, Concise Edition, Southwestern Company, 1978.
Procedure
1. Discuss portfolios. (Instructor-led discussion)
2. Review a PowerPoint. (Student)
3. Complete Exercise - Create a Portfolio. (Student)
Have you ever really considered what makes a good TV reporter? What is it about them that keeps your attention, or helps you follow their story? Is it that they are well prepared? Is their story well written? Is it that they are just plain captivating? Chances are they possess all of these things. It is safe to say, however, that not all TV reporters were born with these skills. Many reporters require years of training and practice to develop these qualities.
Even the shyest person who fears presentations can develop these skills. Practicing a few simple presentation techniques can make even the most reticent more confident and the presentation more effective. For example, simple behaviors such as maintaining eye contact, using good posture, and self-control can improve a presentation greatly. Confidence is probably the most difficult element of a good presentation to develop. With practice and preparation, one can build confidence as well.
To review communication techniques
1. You will prepare and present, using positive communication techniques, a 2-3 minute overview of a current events article.
Imagine that you and a group of your friends have recently been invited to attend a full day presentation by a famous video game creator. They want you to be part of a group of kids who will evaluate their concepts. The night before, you can hardly sleep as you imagine the awesome graphics and sounds that the new games will provide. In the morning you dress in all your best gaming clad clothing and set out to meet your friends. You want everyone to know that you are the world's greatest video game fan. As you meet up with all your friends, everyone is hyped and describing what they will see today. "Wild, crystal clear graphics and radical sounds with tons of bass," someone says. You all board a bus that picks the group up at the school and off you go.
You arrive at the civic center where the company is hosting the event. Your heart is pumping in anticipation of what lies ahead. You can almost hear the sounds from the bus. As you get off the bus and enter the building, you figure that you must be early because there is nothing going on, no sound and no video screens. Then a man enters the room and asks everyone to sit down so they can begin. When everyone is seated a man in a business suit wheels in a cart and an easel. As he pulls a laser pen from his pocket he flips the first page on the easel to display a color sketch of a character for one of the new games. Instantly you are brought down. You realize that there will be no awesome graphics and no thundering sounds. You instantly think, "What am I doing here?" You have just been totally let down by your favorite gaming company.
To practice presentation skills
1. Given an instructor-prepared list of presentation scenarios, you will select, from the following list, the most appropriate types of visual aids and written documents: charts, graphs, mock-ups, prototypes, video tapes, 35mm slides, poster board, computer graphics, animation, and HTML documents.
2. You will list the types and identify the elements of various forms of written documents as they relate to presentations.