Logan Freeman

Professor Ruth Benander

English 2089

27 October 2022

Project Evaluation

The process. When beginning this course, I wanted my goal to use my passion for the field of technology to help make meaningful change. With the many innovations in technology, there are a multitude of opportunities that can lead to a much more effective and efficient life. I have come across so many instances where technology has been able to make a notable difference in my life and in others. Though, this overall idea was too broad and held so many potential specific opportunities for change. I began combing through my interests and with the advice I gathered, I narrowed down my goal to slideshow presentations. The idea of a slideshow presentation is a format of presentation that involves innovations in technology. I have always found the format of slideshow presentations to hold a lot of potential in portraying thoughts and ideas effectively. With slideshows, you can pace your information, create functional visuals, perfect the presentation aspect, along with so much more that can aid in engaging your audience. When done properly and used in the right scenario, slideshows can produce a much higher level of understanding and learning. In the early stages of developing my project, I was already aware of a possible community I could work with to pilot my eventual idea for change. While in high school, my IT teacher acted as a sort of mentor for guiding me through that point of my education and life. I discussed the fact that I was in this course and needed an opportunity to make a difference. She said she was happy to help me achieve my goal and would provide me the opportunity in her classes if I needed it. When I went back to my high school earlier this semester to have this conversation, I sat in an IT class where students were working on slideshows for an assignment. I noticed that students were not putting their full effort into making this assignment's creation, as almost every student was using a template for the basis of their slide show. This was around the time when I was beginning the development of my project, and needed ideas for what to do. Seeing this possibility for change, I began to shift and narrow my focus to that of proper slideshow presentation creation. Throughout high school, I developed the passion of creating slideshow presentations on my own due to a spark of interest. I noticed that the proper process of creating these presentations was undertaught. Therefore, I had to learn the majority of these skills on my own through trial and error without a proper guide. Due to my passion, in combination with what I saw on my visit, and what I experienced in the past, I believed this was a perfect opportunity for change. Since I believed the idea of slideshow presentations was lacking coverage in my high school, I wanted to give that knowledge to students. With my passion, I made it my goal to teach students about this format of portraying and relaying information. I developed the idea of creating and presenting a slideshow presentation about the importance and possibilities of slideshow presentations. I believe with all that went into the process of creating and developing my project, it fit my goal and ideals perfectly. I knew I wanted to incorporate a passion of mine in a project that was actually meaningful to me. Though, I wanted to do all of this in a way that pushed my comfort zone but still in a familiar scenario where I could really do my best to make a meaningful difference.

The project. I piloted my project to three IT classes of 10-20 students at my previous high school with the opportunity the IT Teacher provided. To show them the importance and the possibilities of slideshow presentations, my project was divided into two main parts, a slideshow presentation with proper rules and examples and an assignment with a demonstration. In other words, the more general theoretical part and the more hands-on practical part. The slideshow presentation portion of my project was also divided into two distinct parts, the slideshow and the presentation, both of which work together in tandem. When developing the slideshow aspect, the overall concept I focused on was making it a proper slideshow as to be an example for students. Therefore, all throughout the slideshow, I used many techniques of digital design and features offered by the program Google Slides, which the students are accustomed to. For the presentation aspect, I knew I needed to focus on its delivery to not only to spark interest but also to set a good example. Going more in-depth into the slideshow portion, I began by introducing myself and why I was there to present in the first place. I wanted to give students perspective to my cause and why I am confident to talk about this topic. Then, I defined the idea of what a slideshow presentation is, where I split it into two main learning opportunities, The Slideshow or Visual and The Presentation or Verbal. I also emphasized that the information I give is very important to their future. First, in The Slideshow (Visual) category, I used the slides titled Representing Information and Digital Design. In Representing Information, I provided four important rules which I used as talking points to explain why each rule is important. In Digital Design, I gave three critical rules for designing digitally in the scenario of a slideshow. Next, in the category of The Presentation (Verbal), I gave one slide titled Giving a Presentation. In Giving a Presentation, I gave three main rules and techniques that were important when specifically giving a slideshow presentation. Following these two main categories, I tied it all together by showing students what the most important part of a slideshow presentation is, the audience. In this slide, I strongly emphasized how all of the rules I mentioned before need to be adapted and applied to engage your audience. After giving students the information and rules they needed to know, I defined why slideshow presentations are incredibly valuable in certain scenarios. In this slide I used a few interactive techniques to really give perspective to the uses of slideshows. For example, I set up the slideshow to turn off so I could show the students how different my presentation is without the visual aspect. Then, I transitioned into the assignment and demonstration, where I first enthusiastically presented a slide giving the guidelines for their assignment. They needed to create and design a title slide and information slide based on their favorite topic, company, sport, or etc. The important factor of this was that they could not use a template and instead they needed to use their own creativity. I used the assignment to allow students to apply these rules and concepts to an actual working product. The idea behind this was to hopefully commit the information to memory and give them an opportunity to really see the potential of slideshows and Google Slides. As well as this, the more they practice, the more they learn these possibilities and can use them in the future. Although, this assignment could only focus on the visual aspect, as there would have been time constraints to also focus on the verbal aspect. Finally, to build on the rules, I gave a demonstration which was meant to show students actual techniques for creating slideshows. This was meant to work hand-and-hand with the assignment as it provided students concepts most were not aware of. The students in all of the classes appeared to be very impressed with all of the features I demonstrated. This concluded the first part of my project, and I came back two days later to help students with this assignment. I felt that this was important as I figured some students would have questions about how to do something. When they were finished, students submitted their work through a Google Form in order to give me permission to use their work for the measurement. In this form, I also gave the students a small survey to help determine how they felt after my presentation.

My overall goal for this project was to show students the importance of slideshow presentations and give them a glimpse of the possibilities. I wanted to inspire them to practice these concepts so that they have the knowledge in the future. With this knowledge, they will be able to add a creative degree to their work that they have never considered before. I believe the project I developed was able to achieve my goal of teaching students of my previous high school about the possibilities and importance of slideshow presentations. On Tuesday of week 9 of October 17 - 21, I presented my slideshow presentation to all three IT classes of 10-20 students at my previous high school. Following this, on Thursday of week 9, I came back to school to help students complete the interactive assignment I gave them. When it comes to me, I feel as though I have learned a lot myself through pursuing this idea for change. I have always had a fear or anxiety when it came to the presenting aspect of a presentation. I often really enjoyed the part of creating it but was nervous about this other half. On the day of my presentations, I definitely felt that nervousness, since I have never presented to this magnitude. Though going into the first presentation, I was able to present with confidence I have not felt before. I believe this is due to my big passion for creating slideshow presentations. Therefore, I really felt a need to inspire the students, as I hoped doing so would cause some to develop a passion too. I really feel like the presentation aspect went well since this was not something concrete like the slideshow aspect. While I was at my old school piloting my project, all of the students seemed to be very attentive and engaged throughout every portion of my project. When I was presenting my slideshow, almost all of the students gave me their undivided attention. Most of those students visibly looked interested in the information I was presenting as well. When I gave my demonstration, students were visible and even audibly impressed by the features I showed. And when it came time to explain their assignment, no one seemed to dread that they had more work to do. Instead, they got right into and directed their attention to creating their own slideshow. The purpose of this assignment was to give a historical measurement of the interest and effort students put into their work. Listed in my portfolio, under “project”, is a collage of some of the impressive work from students in the three different classes. This features either the students title slide or information slide which displays their implementation of the rules and examples I gave. This demonstrates the fact that the majority of these students really did take interest in the concept of creating proper slideshows. Hopefully, they will continue to practice these skills in the future.

Reflection. If I were to do a similar project in the future, I would broaden the community I wished to make a difference in. This way I could reach many more people and produce a much bigger difference in their understanding of the importance and the possibilities of slideshow presentations. Although, I believe the community I addressed for my project was perfect because of its smaller scope. This way I was able to connect with the students more and get them to understand my goal and my perspective. Also, some students had trouble using Google Forms to submit their assignment, some only submitted it through Google Classroom for the teacher to grade. Though, I am overall very satisfied with the outcome of my project for this course. As I believe I did my best to make the most change I could with the time and experience I had. I learned a lot about making a change in a community and pushed my comfort zone further. I really feel like I was able to inspire students, so they can look back to this knowledge when they need it in the future. I am proud that I was able to take a passion of mine and use it to make a difference.