Put Some Pizzazz in Your Presentations!

Cartoon courtesy of http://blog.falcon-software.com/page/2/

"The human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public." George Jessel

Many storytellers also present workshops at conferences and schools around the country. While our presentations are interactive, there are times when we must and should take the opportunity to use available technology; it may further define our message and make the information easier for your audience to digest.

The next time you want to add a bit of techno-magic to your tales here are some sites I researched to help put some pizazz into your presentation. When you are ready to present, remember, it's EASY!

Eye contact
Attitude
Smile
You are the expert!

Beyond Bullet Points  – Telling a story with your presentation.
http://tinyurl.com/ygurlqs
The Business of Storytelling
http://sparksheet.com/the-business-of-storytelling/
How to Present with PowerPointhttp://tinyurl.com/yz26m6l

Choosing Colors for Your Presentation Slides
http://tinyurl.com/yey58tz

Choose the Right Colors in PowerPoint
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint-help/choose-the-right-colors-for-your-powerpoint-presentation-HA001012072.aspx

What Are The Best Fonts for Making PowerPoint Presentation
The article is also accompanied by an excellent video presentation.
http://tinyurl.com/6ymrck

Relaxation Information - Included is an audio guide you through some relaxation exercises. http://tinyurl.com/y9d2qbe


Just as there are many ways to give presentations, there are different styles of storytelling. Here are a few sites on combining the power of Oral Tradition with the digital era.

Center for Digital Storytelling
This California arts organization assists “young people and adults in using the tools of digital media to craft, record, and share the stories of individuals and communities, in ways that improve all our lives.” http://www.storycenter.org/

Do History
From Harvard University, a virtual how to on piecing together fragments of the past using primary resources; step-by-step guidelines are also provided.
http://dohistory.org/home.html

DigiTales
Information and resources, everything you need to help students craft a digital story.
http://www.digitales.us/

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
Examples, tools, evaluations and more.
http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/

History Matters
Designed for high school and college teachers, and students it serves as a gateway to web resources offering materials, first-person primary documents, and guides to analyzing historical evidence. An extra bonus is a host of resources to assist you in completing your own oral history project. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/online.html. For the main site go to: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

In The First Person
Over 2,500 collections of oral history from around the world: personal narratives, letters, diaries, memoirs, autobiographies, and oral histories; a goldmine of information.
http://www.inthefirstperson.com/firp/index.aspx

Lesson Plans for Digital Storytelling
A step by step guide, rubrics and additional resources.
http://tinyurl.com/3rv6uf

Oral History Resources
My personal collection of websites gathered over the years.
http://www.storybug.net/links/oralhistory.html

Oral Tradition Journal
A fabulous resource you will return to again and again. The Center for Studies in Oral Tradition at the University of Missouri has generously placed twenty-two years of their journal online. The site contains nearly 500 articles and 10,000 pages with the contents downloadable as pdf files. The site is also searchable by keyword or author name.
http://journal.oraltradition.org/

Schrockguilde.net – Digital Storytelling Meets the Common Core
http://www.schrockguide.net/digital-storytelling.html

Using Technology to Tell Stories
Create your own digital storytelling project. The site includes a step by step guide, examples of digital storytelling, rubrics assessment, lesson plans and additional web links. In no time at all you will be saying, “It’s a wrap!”
http://techstories.edublogs.org/ 

Karen Chace ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.