#CPD23 Thing 17&19: Showcasing Your Expertise and Reflection

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I'm moving right along in the 23 Things for Professional Development program, and for this post, the focus is on showcasing your work. Two tools were discussed in Thing 17's post - Prezi and Slideshare - both of which I have a familiarity with.

Prezi
My first encounter with prezi left me a little sea sick after sitting through the presentation. Prezi's key feature is its zoom capability, allowing a presenter to highlight important aspects of a presentation. If done well, this is a highly effective tool! If done poorly, you might be a little green afterwards (zooming overkill anyone?).

I have dappled with prezi, but the blank canvas and somewhat intermediate learning curve leaves me frustrated every time I attempt to create a presentation with it. You also have to map out your entire presentation beforehand in order to have the cool ending picture show up correctly. Oftentimes, I just don't have that kind of time.

Aside from the above criticisms, I have been able to use prezi to present with for the new student orientation where I work. The assistant librarian created it (and did a stellar job!), and we have collaborated to present the material together.

One idea that I'm intrigued by from the original Thing 17 post is the idea of using Prezi to take the place of a presentation/classroom handout. In looking at the example, I'm still not quite sure how this is fully used as a handout replacement, but I'm planning to investigate this further.

One other idea/revelation that I've had comes after seeing THIS prezi. I'm considering an attempt to turn my monthly reports into an interactive presentation. The only downside is that my Dean has voiced a comment to me, saying that he prefers to have a printable document. Perhaps I could create a simple word file that lists the points within the presentation. Either way, doing the report in the form of a prezi might help me to showcase content, eliminating my wordiness tendency ...

**pondering further

Slideshare
Now onto a tool that I use frequently. Slideshare allows you to upload your presentations and pdf documents, making it very easy to share with others. Ways I've used slideshare:

- I teach an information literacy course and use Google Sites to keep assignments handy for students. All of my weekly lessons have been uploaded to slideshare and embedded on the course website.
- I have used slideshare in conjunction with bit.ly (shortened url's) to give students continual access to my one-shot classroom instruction session information. You can see an example here from a business plan instruction session.
- Similarly, I uploaded my recent professional presentation (a pecha kucha) and provided the link in the form of a QR code within my closing slide. Those interested were able to grab the link in order to have my references.

My most favorite ...

- I love gaining inspiration and techniques from other presenters. It keeps ideas fresh and I am able to find new ways of showcasing information within slide presentations - priceless!

Thing 19: Reflection Thoughts So Far ...
I really have enjoyed the program so far. While I have already been using many of the items discussed throughout the program, I have gleaned new ideas and uses for many of the tools. I am also developing my own version of the 23 Things program for our faculty. Some of the posts so far have been beneficial to finding new ideas for web 2.0 technologies. Since my program will be faculty/higher-ed based, the focus has been shifted from a personal productivity program to a participatory classroom program. It has been super fun to work on and I can't wait for it to go live in a little over 12 weeks (eeek...lots more work to do!).

More 23 Things to come...