Yesterday's post provided a preview of the tech-related sessions being offered at ACPA 2016, and today we move on to the NASPA Convention. Again, what strikes me about this list is the sheer number and diversity of programs. The topics presented are wide-ranging from faith development to online education. Every year the offerings get more... Continue Reading →
What a difference a year makes! When I started doing these blog posts in 2014 highlighting the tech-related sessions being offered at the ACPA and NASPA conferences, it required a lot more keyword searching and scrolling to compile these lists. Now that Technology exists as its own competency area, the process has become significantly more easy! Click,... Continue Reading →
I have the honor of presenting a webinar to the members of OSA, The Optical Society, today. Although the following presentation is geared towards professionals, engineers and researchers working in optics-related fields, the concepts presented here are relatively universal. If you're looking to enhance your network, share your expertise and increase your visibility online, the following... Continue Reading →
If you want to watch a master presenter, you have to see Zeb Davenport's PechaKucha talk from ACPA 2015. I've worked with the PechaKucha format a lot over the past few years, and I believe this is one of the most masterful uses of the format. PechaKucha as you may remember, is 20 slides, each... Continue Reading →
One of the constant reminders I have to tell myself when designing slide decks is to remember that "simpler is better." Rather than trying to load my presentations with bells, whistles, and animations that are more likely to distract, I have to remember to takeaway. I designed this Slideshare (embedded below) to help illustrate the... Continue Reading →
RA Training and residence hall opening is upon us and I wanted to share some videos I've used in training presentations that I think you might want to use too. There are a lot of AMAZINGLY talented folks out there who have put together some great videos, but it's hard to find the ones that... Continue Reading →
This past semester while teaching in Merrimack College's Higher Education Program, I played around with a new assignment for my students. Instead of the standard end-of-the-year "lessons learned" presentation in my practicum class, I had my students do it in a PechaKucha-style format. As you may remember, PechaKucha is 20 slides set to automatically advance every... Continue Reading →
My friend and colleague, Dr. Laura Pasquini, asked if I could do a quick video lesson for her students on how to design and deliver great presentations. The end result was the video below. Hopefully you will find this a practical, accessible, and easy how-to guide for your own work. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSRgO0qouA0
From the first ACPA PechaKucha session, to its adoption as a conference-wide event, a number of faculty have begun to utilize the presentation style as a class assignment for their students. For a few years, I have avoided assigning this to my own students. I thought it was just too hard. That it required too advanced a... Continue Reading →
I'm a big fan of the website SlideShare. Think of it as the YouTube of presentations. You can upload your slides from a presentation to share them with others. I was recently selected to be a "Keynote Author." This is a designation given by SlideShare to select users who are recognized as "top content creators." I'm... Continue Reading →
I have been on SlideShare since 2010 and am a big proponent of the platform. Think of it as the YouTube of presentations. This year I was designated a "Keynote Author" by SlideShare which saw the traffic to my content increase SIGNIFICANTLY. The following is a review of my most viewed presentations from 2014.
PechaKucha is a special style of presentation that privileges short, powerful messages. I've been experimenting with this style of presentation for almost 5 years. In 2013, I along with a few colleagues were the first to bring this presentation style to student affairs in a session entitled, "The Future of Student Affairs in Six Minutes and Forty... Continue Reading →
Here are some quick tips on how to increase the visual impact of your slides through typography. Including: Understanding the types of fonts Using color Breaking up and placing text Text size and bullet points Integrating text and images
Haiku Deck is a free web-based presentation software platform that makes it easy to create highly visual slide decks. Haiku Deck doesn't get caught up in the camera panning zooms and crazy animations of Prezi, but instead focuses on high quality images and simple text. Access to these images is built right into and included with... Continue Reading →
For my first Wednesday spotlight, I wanted to showcase a tool I personally use in my teaching and presentations, Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere allows individuals to create quick polls, quizzes, and interactive message boards that can be integrated into presentation software for gathering feedback on the fly. Individuals can access and answer the polls via... Continue Reading →
I'm excited to share that I will be one of the keynote speakers at the 2014 ACPA Residential Curriculum Institute alongside Karen Inkleas (of leaving learning program research fame) and Patty Perrillo (ACPA Past President). As one of the premier and most popular Institutes ACPA offers, the Residential Curriculum Institute (RCI) provides participants a step-by-step process... Continue Reading →
I had the incredible privilege of presenting on technology and social media to the student affairs staff at American University in Dubai (AUD) last week. Presenting internationally comes with its own set of opportunities and challenges, particularly as it relates to talking about social media and technology. I wanted to share three takeaways I had in... Continue Reading →
The Future of Student Affairs in 6 Minutes and 40 Seconds... The Future of Higher Education in 6 Minutes and 40 Seconds... The Future of Anything in 6 minutes and 40 seconds... The "Future Series" is something I first conceived of back in the Summer of 2012. The Future series entails a diverse group of... Continue Reading →
Today, I am pleased to launch a resource page for higher education and student affairs professionals interested in organizing their own PechaKucha presentations as a part of the "Future Series." The "Future Series" is something I first conceived of back in the Summer of 2012. The Future series entails a diverse group of colleagues coming together to... Continue Reading →
A key part of a good presentation is finding and using the right images. The Internet has made this incredibly easy… easy to steal images, that is. When searching for images, most people go to the search engine of their choice and do an image search. This makes sense as it is an incredibly easy... Continue Reading →
I wanted to share one of my favorite applications of a seeming simple slide transition, the "push" effect. It is an excellent way to create the illusion of a camera panning across a large canvas. Prezi presentations use a more smooth variation of this effect, but you can recreate it in Keynote or Powerpoint. In... Continue Reading →
Many people ask me about resources available to help them become better presenters and build better presentations. There are two individuals that I think are doing particularly outstanding work. I highly suggest checking out their blogs and books. Links are provided below. Garr Reynolds Garr is perhaps my favorite author that speaks and writes on... Continue Reading →
I'm excited to have been invited to present during a Presidential Session at the American Educational Research Association Conference this coming week in San Francisco, CA. Many of you may be familiar with my previous work in organizing a PechaKucha session for the ACPA-College Student Educators, International Convention this past spring. For those of you... Continue Reading →
I had a blast as a guest on the Student Affairs Live broadcast on Wednesday, April 24 at Noon EST. We talked about how to design and give presentations. I love this topic and frequently present on it, and media design in general, to my students. If you're curious about some of my work, you... Continue Reading →
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