I like design and I like making slides. We know that images can increase recall and understanding. You don't have to agree and this post isn't so much about convincing you of that as it is about the wonderful ways in which collaboration and push back can happen online and actually make things better. 

I've been thinking about the phrase which I have come to dislike, "it's not about the technology" I wanted to capture that idea in an image and began thinking about the way musicians use their instruments. Trying to find a name of someone who would be most recognizable I chose Yo Yo Ma. You don't have to acknowledge if you've never heard of him before because the image I found tells you all you need to know about his love of music and the cello. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/2297224410

​So I began with this:

After I posted it to flickr, Darren chimed in with this suggestion:

Try using a brown similar to the cello instead of yellow. You can use the colour picker in Keynote to do that.

Love the pic, and the quote.

I tried that and responded:

Tried your advice Darren but the brown was too dark, not enough contrast with the background. I used the cello colour for the outline though. I think it's better this way though. Thanks for the feedback. I'll take more if you have it.

I like this. Looks better. Are you using two different fonts? I think I'd stick with one; there's something about the font used in the smaller text that clashes with the larger font.

Fair enough and wise. I tried again.

Darren continued to work at making it better,

Ooo, liking that better; wonder how it looks without white outline of the brown text. Maybe no outline but keep shadow? No shadow?

I played a little with the kerning and positioning until I had it somewhat better.

 Darren Draper joined our conversation with his own ideas. 

Outlined text helps, but a solid bg on the photo would make it stronger. 

Darren then went off and made this:

None of us are graphic designers and will all admit our amateur approach to design. However we all three understand that it does matter and we also enjoy the process. But also the collaboration, the push back and willingness to go back, edit and revise lead to a better product. We joked later about starting a Fix My Slide meme. I don't know about that but I do think there's some simple ideas here for you and your students to seek feedback and find ways to learn with others without the limitations of geography and time. 

I switched to Final Cut Express since I have more control and can use multiple tracks. I have to admit I still feel like a novice in that program even though I’ve used it for a number of projects. Keyframing in particular is something I don’t have quite right yet and need to learn a few more shortcuts to improve my work flow.

I also found it much better to use Audacity to edit each music clip and bring them into FCE after that. I would say overall this is a much better product but maybe you disagree. I’ll be happy to take further suggestions on improvement. It took more time I think so I’m weighing that as well. This isn’t even a full month as it includes the last day of January and photos up to February 20th.

As schools begin to recognize the potential of social media or networking as potential learning spaces it might be important to distinguish and identify things a bit more succinctly. I know David Jakes has stated he does not like the term social networking as it suggests social, but doesn’t speak specifically to learning. I agree. The term gets tossed around and means something quite different depending on individual interpretation.

I’ve build a mockup of a diagram I’d like to use to illustrate the merging and blending of social networking and individual interaction with content. This can be either online or offline but primarily I’m thinking about online spaces. Here’s my first draft.

It needs some work both from a design standpoint as well as the message and content.  The social networking aspect is pretty clear. We all have spaces where we are focused primarily on the social. Students in particular use facebook as a primary space to socialize. It’s not seen, nor should it necessarily be seen as a learning or academic space. That’s fine. On the other hand those that see the web or school library or classroom as containers of knowledge and information often aren’t interesting in the social component and interaction that supports learning. The area in blue represents learning and content that is consumed in isolation, reading a book, watching a video, writing a journal or article by yourself. I don’t think the term “academic content” really gets at what I’m trying to say. I’m trying to show that there is a sweet spot in between that can exist and should be fostered in schools. Any suggestions for improving this diagram would be welcomed.

This image also supports the concept but I wanted something a bit more explicit but this is the concept.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by dkuropatwa

I thought I'd try doing the month of January as a test. I'll be honest, I don't think it works. It seems sloppy, lacking any elegance.
Watch.

So while I plan to continue finding a song for each image I post, I'm not sure this will be the way to package it. I like the concept but not sure I can pull it off. I considered titling each image but thought that would simply add to the cognitive load. Maybe there is a way but I'm not seeing it. I could use your help. Can this be improved? Be honest. I can take it.

Since its inception in 2006, it's been interesting to see the presentations evolve. The decision last year to go to a more "TED-like" format was a good one in my opinion as it  addresses the amount of content in the conference but also gets presenters to get to the point. Twenty minutes is long enough in any context but on the web it's particularly daunting to keep folks interested.

There have been a number of delivery models and to be sure, and a clear winning style has not been established. However, there are a few concepts that seem to work, at least for me.

While it's hard to separate content from design, here are a few presentations that use some techniques that I think make them very viewable. I've taken one from each year, with the exception of 2006.

2009 Around the World with Skype by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano. Silvia does a number of things which makes for a compelling presentation. She's clear on the onset about what she will be talking about. It's frustrating to watch 5 minutes of a 20 minute presentation trying to guess what it's about and what will be shared. Silvia let's you know early on exactly what she'll be discussing. She uses her own images. You can spend a lot of time searching flickr for the perfect image. Her use of her personal avatar figure likely took a long time to shoot all the images but in the end helps her create a great introduction. She uses video to show examples.  Live examples not only illustrates her concept more richly but anytime you can include students in action adds an emotional connection to the ideas.

2008 Film School for Video Podcasters by Matthew Needleman. Matthew obviously possess some storytelling skills and given his topic, you'd expect that. Matthew uses a story, a 1940's detective theme to weave in his ideas. A clever twist but one that's not used superfluously but as a meaningful way to share his ideas. He does a great job of chunking ideas. There are clear breaks and transitions. Easy to review.

2007 Online Professional Development by Jeff Utecht. While this was before the 20 minute time limit, Jeff still has a well designed presentation. It may not be possible in every presentation but Jeff models what he means by have some very informal, natural conversations that truly illustrate his point. Like Silvia, he shows you exactly what it looks like.

2006 Wiki While You Work by Mark Wagner. This was again before the current time limits but Mark really explored the ideas of what an online presentation could be. He made it personal. Simply by recording his presentation from his home office, talking with his friends and wife, it invited you in, to want to learn more. I applaud Mark for being being a pioneer in the online presentation.

2006 Derailing Education: Taking Side Trips for Learning by David Warlick. Having the first Keynote for year one, must have been both pressure packed as well as the feeling of a new frontier. Like Mark, but even more so, David invited us in to his home and town to explore. David carefully used his physical space to make clear connections to his ideas. While it was largely theoretical, the use of that space and helped to forge his ideas into something that I still reflect on today.

I'd invite you to watch these if only to examine them from a presentation perspective. These may not have been your favorites or even the best but I think they do offer some techniques and delivery models that work. Creating a presentation that's worth watching is hard work and nothing any of us were trained in given the fact that the genre has only existed for a few years. 

Now it's your turn. Do you have a favorite K12 Online or other presentation that you think has a unique delivery model?

Cross posted at TechLearning.

However, I’ve matured and I guess times have changed. So in the spirit of back to school makeovers and outfits, I’ve decided to put some new paint on my blog and go for a different look.

I wanted something a little cleaner, and more magazine style. I think the blog format of constantly having new work posted first, has its limitations. Subscribers see the new stuff via RSS but the newcomers often are unfamiliar with the format and often miss the best stuff. This particular theme called "Atahualpa" offers a "sticky post" feature. (Actually I think it’s standard in the latest version of WordPress, I just like the way it looks in this theme.) This way I can leave the more blog worthy post front and center and hide some of the usual drivel in the back so to speak. I really have to think about who actually visits my blog. I know that for me, most, if not all of the reading I do happens inside Google Reader. I rarely visit the site of my subscriptions other than to comment and even then it’s usually a quick in and out. If I want people to stay here, and look around, I have to make it an easy experience. The pages at the top remain the same and I do go in there and clean them up from time to time so the content remains pretty current.

I’ve maintained my rotating banner of my personal photos simply because I think it offers some insight into who I am and tells its own story. I’ve removed some of the old banners and put up some new ones.

So that’s my new outfit. I hope no one beats me up.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski

This video is of a local women who has terminal cancer. It’s challenging and a little nerve racking to be working with such a sensitive subject. The intent is obviously to tell her story in a clear and concise way and at the same time evoke the emotion that will get people to open up their wallets.

I Have Cancer from shareski on Vimeo.

I thought I’d take some time to reveal some of the reasoning and thought behind my production/design choices. I’ve always believed and have been taught that nothing should be random so hopefully I can address those choices.

Trimming

The raw interview was about 12 minutes. I had a goal of getting the interview under 5 minutes. Determing what to cut was difficult. This is where you need an unbias eye to see if you’ve captured a coherent story. I had my wife watch the first cut to see if the story was clear. This is crucial since it’s often hard to remove yourself from the knowledge you have of the entire footage.

Camera Positions

When doing interviews I prefer to have the camera slightly off centre. The interviewer in this case is sitting slightly to the left of the camera. It’s actually farther off centered that I prefer but without moving too much furniture around, it’s the best I could do. I shot the main footage with a Sony HD camera. The second camera is simply my Canon SD 780 still camera that shoots in HD. The use of a second camera is always a plus and in this case I think it helps the viewer see the setting of the interview and get a sense of being present. The split screen view makes that clear.

Transitions

The transitions between shots using the flowers and backyard footage has two purposes. First you see the subject and interviewer in a casual setting which provides context and background information to the interview. I rarely show the interviewer since they aren’t really part of the story. In this case I wanted to reveal a sense of friendship. Although you never see the interviewer ask a question, I’m hoping the transition video makes that clear. I switch to using the flowers in transitions to represent the beauty of life. The whole idea of a transition between scences is done to allow the viewer time to feel the impact and emotion of the story. It seems that for me the greater the emotion, the longer the transitions. In this case I would have lengthened the transitions even more in some cases but wanted the entire project to be under 5 minutes so I had to trim some of them.

Audio

I can’t stress enough the importance of a microphone for interviews. I have a bluetooth, wireless mic that works wonders in all sorts of environments. The air conditioner was humming in the background but the quality of this mic eliminated external sounds. This also allows me to easily add background audio withouth having to a lot of tweaking. The music, which I found on Jamendo (my new favourite Creative Commons source) is used to provide a delicate, soft backdrop to the story. I sampled dozens of instrumental music but was thinking piano as the core instrument. Music can certainly be overdone and I sampled until I found the one that best fit the piece.

Special Effects

5 minutes of "talking head’ can be a bit much. I’ve rarely seen it done effectively. If I’d had more time or had more ownership of the project, I would have liked more "b-roll" footage. In order to provide interest I used the dual camera and split screens. Again, these are done with purpose. The viewer gets a sense of place and hopefully adds to the intimacy. I used a bit of slow motion on the pan of the family photos. This was done as much to cover up the use of a handheld pan. There are a number of interesting filters in Final Cut Express which may have been interesting but time and the fact they have to be rendered each time to view them made that less desirable. I will need to explore them more to understand how they might enhance future projects.

The story is still the key. However these other elements represent the design and as I’ve mentioned many times, cannot be separated from the final product. I hope these insights are useful and certainly am open to critique of my choices. I just wanted to be transparent and explicit with how and why I did what I did.

If you’re not familiar with Jessica Hagy’s site, start subscribing. Simple, fun graphs.

jessicahagy

While I tried using the Keynote recording function, I was having trouble exporting to Quicktime and retaining the sound. Not sure what I did wrong. The flash export worked well but when I went home to record, not having a second screen meant not seeing my speaker notes. Doing it “off the cuff” ended up with too many “ums” and “ahs”. Just another reminder of the power of planning and the challenge of audio recording. When you’re under a time crunch you can’t afford to stray.

I finally exported the sans sound quicktime and added the narration in iMovieHD. 

Where Alec wins is in his wise mix of media including public domain video and audio, thoughtful graphics and animation, green screen, humor and a personal touch. I’ve always enjoyed presentations that show me context. Who are you? Where do you live? David Warlick did a great job with this in prior keynotes and Clarence Fisher focused largely on place in his keynote last year. Alec begins his presentation by providing a context and allowing us to get comfortable with his content.

Since his content is about open content, Alec uses video from public domain to create transitions to his piece. In this way, it’s easy for us to follow.

His feature on twitter might challenge Common Craft as a visual way to explain twitter. Not the same style but equally effective.

I could go on but you’d be best to watch it yourself. Again, whether you are watching because the concept is intrigues or not, watch as one way to deliver an effective online presentation.  The bad news is this kind of work takes more time than most are willing to offer. But good work requires this. Nicely done Alec.

k12online08pi05, aleccouros, k12online08, davidwarlick, clarencefisher

Show notes:

Dan’s 10 videos
Ze Frank
David SimonThe WireGraphing Stories
Summer Camp Video

*My feed in itunes is not functioning. The feed validates but itunes says it’s wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

I’ve consciously and subconsciously tried to recreate the idea a few times but decided today to begin a set of my own. Beginning with one I created earlier this month, I was inspired to capture a quote from the recent article in the NY Times on literacy. The quote isn’t necessarily true, it is a reflection of one perspective.

While I’ll likely continue to create images based on interesting quotes, I decided to scan my blog for recent quotes I thought were worthy of an image. Beginning with George Siemens quote about short attention spans and superficial learning. I went through an interesting process in finding what I felt was an appropriate image.

Using a Creative Commons search, I thought about searching for an image of multi-tasking. I found a few but felt the message here was not so much about that as it was about the depth of connections.  The easy choice is to try and go literal. However, I’m finding that as I explore and become more adept at using imagery, a little abstractness and dissonance is a good thing. I then tried to find something about connections. Still not happy. Shallow would seem to be the next choice but it wasn’t until I visualized a person walking along a beach that I entered “wading” to find the image I wanted.  After adding the quote and  flickr credit, this was the end result:

It’s not the only way to go but it’s one way.

The more I think about design, imagery and communication, the more I think that developing key images to attach to a few of my favourite and most meaningful quotes is a worthwhile habit to form and to share. It should go without saying but since I still get many emails, feel free to use any of these in your own presentations.

If you’d like to subscribe to my Interesting Quotes set you can do so by clicking the RSS feed at the bottom of the flickr page.

As David and I held a little planning session tonight we talked about the power and importance of visual literacy. We also agreed that while PowerPoint may be the tool we focus on, it’s really not about PowerPoint but the ability to communicate a message effectively with the support of well designed visuals.

This video promoting a book called The Back of a Napkin, demonstrates how ideas can always be enhanced and developed using simple visuals.

Many of these principles are transferable whether you’re using a napkin or a slide deck. If you’re attending NECC, we’d love to have you pop by Monday, June 30th at 11:00. David plans to take everyone who attends out for supper that evening.

So I think information and ideas can fall inside this quadrant I created.

Obviously we should be aiming for the top left but I’m guessing the bottom left has more influence that the top right. (Think Fox News, or most of what you find on Youtube and the internet in general, and also see Andrew Keen). It once again falls into the long line of topics relegated to the “it is what it is” category.

I think being entertaining often gets a bad rap. We often see it a less academic or somehow a dumbing down of important and serious thought. Entertainment does not have to be synonymous with fluff. On one hand we try and make learning more engaging for our students and at the same time guard against the pointless drivel of the much of today’s content. Surely this will be an ongoing struggle.

I’m advocating for entertaining, or at least interesting (I haven’t decided yet if these are the same). I heard Gar Reynolds once say that 90% of Presentation slides are boring but surely 90% of people aren’t. And yet I sometimes get the same feeling as I read blogs. It has nothing to do with length either. Tell me stories, be funny, be clever, surprise me, anger me, or challenge me. I don’t have a recipe for how to do this but certainly if you’re a boring person in real life, I’m not sure you can pull off being entertaining online. I don’t know that many truly boring people. Mostly because I likely tend to consciously or subconsciously avoid them. Don’t we all?

In Dan Pink’s A Whole New Mind he advocates for people to be watching/listening to comedy everyday. I remember as a young child staying up late, hoping my parents didn’t noticed me so could watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. My two favourite parts were Johnny’s monologue and whenever he had a stand up comedian. I’ve always been intrigued with how comedians are able to craft language and physical gestures to make people laugh. I won’t even tell you how many Seinfeld episodes I’ve seen. My wife says I can relate everything to Seinfeld and I have several friends who know exactly what I mean when I say, “the vault”. If you’re interested in the meta cognition involved in crafting a joke, rent the DVD Comedian. It chronicles Jerry Seinfeld’s return to stand up comedy and more interestingly how difficult it is to be funny or entertaining. It’s hard work to be entertaining. I think it aligns nicely with the value of crafting a compelling slide deck for your presentations. Often skipped over because its seen as decorative, it really becomes the avenue for which compelling ideas are expressed.

So spend some time on youtube watching storytellers and comedians. So is content more important than engagement? Maybe not but most of the world would say it is.

In case you haven’t laughed today, watch this.

The pure model is the 20×20 format. 20 slides for 20 seconds for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. This has become a fairly common business model. The fact that Dan Pink himself has considered this, lets you know the value of its format.

I’ve modified the format to a 20×9 format so each presentation is 3 minutes.

This was also an opportunity for me to explore Keynote a bit more. While still seeing only a few features that separate it from PowerPoint, I did like the record feature that allowed me to make a quicktime movie. I then uploaded it to youtube.

I really like this format as it forced me to be concise and try and utilize many of the design elements I think are most valuable. I muffed up some of the text and I think I pronounced pecha kucha wrong. But here’s my first crack.

Technorati Tags: pechakucha, danpink, keynote, ecmp355, presentation, designmatters

Clay Burell

Clay’s been exploring “unschooliness” for a while and has taken me along for the ride. When he posted his quick chat with Chris Craft, it immediately resonated with me. “Quick in, Quick out” (this is one of many catch phrases Clay is responsible for). While I totally admire the work of projects like the flatclassroom, liferoundhere, 1000tales and such, I know the work involved and I also know that my personal network does not revolve around a project; it just revolves around learning…and socializing. Clay isn’t someone willing to think about this, he attempts to make this a reality in his classroom. I’m all ears and eyes.

So although Clay resides in Korea, he keeps some odd hours as do I so we are able to quite easily connect and on this occasion he did tell me he was recording but I soon forgot that and hopefully didn’t say anything too silly but I’m sure I did. Anyway, head over to Clay’s blog. *Warning, if you’ve never been to Clay’s blog before, I dare you to attempt a “quick in and quick out” there. His posts are filled with insights on some really interesting stuff.

Clay definitely has a good sense of design, even as podcasting goes. Audio design, is something I need to explore more as in “did you see the audio chapters he used?’. It helps that Clay has a voice meant for radio, but better than that his ideas are meant for teachers and all that is “unschooly”.

[tags]clayburell,chriscraft[/tags]

I’m naturally attracted to blog posts where controversy and heated discussion occurs. That’s why you need to visit the site and not simply rely your reader because you’ll miss the comments. While some get overly concerned with the tone and their interpretation of malice, I’m interested in the arguments and appreciate diversity because it helps me learn.

Here’s one I’m currently watching: David Warlick’s post on Pedagogy and Gary Stager’s Response. The fact the Gary is challenging David is far from novel but no doubt their previous bouts have been helpful to me in developing my own beliefs. I like what both of them stand for and say. Is that weird or possible when at times they seem to be on opposite sides?  My feeble comment on the issue restates my feeling that they are likely closer in their thinking than it appears but still their discussions and perspectives serve to clarify and hone my thinking.

Another one that might not materialize but I find interesting is Tom Hoffman’s concern about Dan Meyer’s latest design contest. I won’t even provide much detail here because I’m not sure what I think yet but hope others join in on this to voice their opinions and uncover the nuances and perspectives on this issue.

Embrace diversity and learn.

Image: Courtroom One Gavel Joe Gratz
http://flickr.com/photos/joegratz/117048243/

Technorati Tags: debates, ewanmcintosh, socialnetworks, garystager, davidwarlick, danmeyer, tomhoffman

But as we’ve now been giving more tools to create multimedia and graphical content, we need to have a better understanding of font. I recall discussions with primary teachers years ago, insisting on using Comic Sans in digital content because the “a” reflected the way students were to print it. Is that still a factor? (I actually have a font installed on my computer called , “I hate Comic Sans”) What other discussions should teachers have with their students about font and typeface other than not to use dingbats for their essays? I certainly don’t know a lot about it. I know that somewhere I read serif fonts are easiest to read. I know about Guy Kawasaki’s font rule .

But fonts are now more than just about text, they are art and they are used in a graphical context in much our digital work. I know I certainly pay more attention. I did not address adequately in my design presentation for K12, mostly because I don’t have enough understanding. I ‘ll have to work that. It’s become so much a part of how we view digital content that this video, courtesy Bill Mckinnon actually is understood. We get what he’s talking about.

Image:Font 006 by Stewf

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