This course reinforced for me the importance of visual literacy for our students as well as the importance of making visually appealing presentations. I thought for this final project I would transform a previously text-based presentation that was collectively designed by our faculty for the student One to One digital citizenship bootcamp in our high school. The presentation is used for a short meeting with HS kids where they are intended to learn about protecting themselves on the web. It’s got good content, which is a great place to start, but I thought it could use a facelift to really pack the punch we are looking for. Here’s the original version. The new version is after the break…

The new version confirmed several things I knew about creating “zen” presentations. It takes time, lots of time. The text and embedded videos in the first presentation took time to think about and create, but that is really just phase one of a “zen” presentation. Phase two is making it visually appealing. That can take as much or more time than the actual “writing” of the presentation. In this case it certainly did take more time.

What’s missing here is the real live presenter. It’s a funny thing about hosting a “presentation zen” presentation online. They don’t always make the best presentations for viewing later online. The best presentations really have to be that magical combination of the presenter and the media. If it helps please imagine a fun, charismatic presenter that makes you feel the material in your soul!

I also suggest you view this Google Presentation’s notes. It will help tremendously you to understand what the teachers will see and communicate when they present this. You can view the notes by clicking the little settings wheel, then choosing “Open Speaker Notes” or you can just view it in the editor to see the notes as well. I hope you like the “zen-ness” an are inspired to make your own amazing presentations!