Once we completed our finalized capstone project, we had one class period where my partner and I received peer feedback on what we are going to present to the committee. My partner and I were not sure if we were going to do a PowerPoint presentation, or if we would show our finalized project through our WordPress site. Upon reflection, we decided to create a small PowerPoint presentation to keep us on track because we both know we will be nervous.
Our peers gave us feedback on our third artifact (strategies of implementing differentiated instruction PowerPoint) and our capstone presentation (short summary of our project as a whole); the feedback we received on both of these PowerPoint presentations were similar. Our peers noted that our PowerPoints are professional, clean, and utilized clear fonts. My partner and I used as minimal words as possible because we want the focus to be on us; this is a presentation aid, not the entire presentation, itself. Instead, we used high quality images that relates to what we are going to say (also in the notes section). With the use of high quality images, however, comes the effect of having a large PowerPoint file and the need to condense it using Slide Share or converting it to a PDF. When my partner and I discussed this, we decided Slide Share would not be compatible, as we have landscape slides. It might cut off some of the images in our backgrounds, and they would lose their effectiveness. Therefore, we are going to try to convert it to a PDF, but we need to make sure that the images do not become too pixelated.
For our presentation, we are going to make sure we back-up our work on a flash drive and via email. One of my education professors always mentioned “Technology can and will malfunction—and always at the wrong time!” If we have multiple back-ups, we will have piece of mind knowing that we have alternate plans, no matter what occurs. It is also because of this fact, that we decided to use fonts in our PowerPoints that are compatible for all computers (nothing that is overly fancy or needs to be downloaded). The simplicity of choice continues to put the focus on the presenters, which is our ultimate goal! My partner and I are anxious to present to the committee, but we are excited to show everyone our final product because we have worked so hard on it. We are proud of what we accomplished.
Apples, Oranges, and Bananas: Teaching Them All 