#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...

I Survived: A First Professional Presentation Experience

Before I get into the topic of this post, I want to say thank you to everyone who stopped by and read my advocacy post. It seems that there are those of you out there in the same boat, or at least feeling some of my same frustrations. If nothing else, it's nice to know that I'm not alone. Librarians - press on! We are making a difference to some, and that's where our focus should be.

Now then - on to today's post: I survived!

This past Friday I presented my first library presentation to a room full of colleagues and peers as part of the Allen County Public Library Library Camp. It wasn't just an ordinary presentation though...it was a pecha kucha. If you don't know what that is, picture a series of speed presentations - all 6 minutes and 40 seconds long. It's harder than it looks, especially since I'm used to hour long classroom presentations where I'm able to explain in depth a certain topic or concept. For a pecha kucha though, there's simply not enough time to go too far in-depth.

Before I share my presentation slides with you, I wanted to commemorate the fact that I was pretty calm. I was fully expecting to be nervous as heck (after all, I changed career paths from piano performance due to nerves...), but the day before, the night before, the morning of, and right before the presentation I was cool, calm, and collected! All I can figure is that my over preparation payed off. Because of the time limit, I had written a script and practically memorized it so as to stay within the 20 second per slide time factor. This helped tremendously! I was also quite happy that my micro DVI to VGA adapter for my macbook worked like a charm (thanks to hubby for tracking one down for me). By using my mac, I was able to have presenter tools displayed which further helped me to feel more in control.

After the presentation, several people came up and said what a great prez it was, and many said they gained a few new ideas. Mission accomplished!

So with that, here are my slidedecks. Feel free to leave comments with how you've used QR Codes and Poll Everywhere with your libraries!

Tech Tools That Engage the Library Population - Pecha Kucha ACPL Library Camp 2011

View more presentations from Rebecca Johnson 

Library Day in the Life #7 - Wednesday

It's the third day of the Library Day in the Life Project...

8:00 - 9:00      Yep, you guessed it... I started my workday by checking e-mail and checking in with my online class. During my first hour, I also assisted a student with an assignment requiring them to search LexisNexis.  They weren't understanding the layout of the different search areas, so I got them back on track with what they were needing to search. During this time, a phone call also came through with a student asking for an ISBN number for a course textbook. I grabbed the number and moved on to my to-do list.

9:00 - 10:00      Yesterday, an e-mail went out to the librarians across our campuses asking for information on how each of us train our work study students, and what training material we use to do so. In my hunt for materials to send out this morning, I realized that I never updated our training packet material after the launch of our new website and catalog. I spent just a bit of time grabbing screenshots and updating terminology for the packet. It really turned out to be perfect timing since one of our work studies couldn't remember the procedure for checking out an item (this is a problem...). With the new packet material, it will give my assistant and I the perfect opportunity to "retrain."

During this time, I also assisted a student that stopped by needing  help finding business planning information. I pointed her to a presentation I recently gave to a class, as well as a few databases that could get her started.

10:00 - 11:00  One of my online students stopped by the library to ask about an assignment. I spent just a bit of time walking her through what was being asked of her. I also got my notes and assessment worksheets ready for a class presentation.

11:00 - 12:00  Today's Google Bucket presentation was for one of our COM classes. This class happened to have a balance of students that have already had library presentations before, or that have taken my info lit course. When this happens, I like to use the Google Bucket, a presentation idea taken from the Library Instruction Cookbook. Students have a chance to dive into a bucket that details a specific database. They get hands on practice searching the databases, we talk about it, I do a little bit of show-and-tell, and in the end, most students learn gobs of new stuff they never knew before.

During this time, my assistant gave a simultaneous presentation to a Computers and Office Automation class. We titled it Free and Fabulous, and it's a whirlwind journey through free and fabulous online tools that students can use for presentations, studying, etc.. This was a brand new presentation but it went over VERY well!

12:30 - 1:30     Lunch! I met my husband for a mexican lunch - quite yummy!

1:30 - 4:00       I spent a good chunk of the rest of my day working on a 23 Things program that I am wanting to implement in the Fall. I'm just in the beginning stages of writing the blog posts for each week, but I'm really getting excited about this!

4:00 - 6:00       I'm not sure why I decided to end with this, but I spent the remainder of my day at work working on the library monthly report. It's a constant struggle to educate people of my campus on the validity of what we do and the need for our library services - and in reality, those that receive my monthly report don't read it, therefore continuing the cycle of non-appreciation. But, I've made a vow to myself to continue with the reports...if nothing else, it provides self fulfillment in seeing on paper what we've accomplished during the month.

Tomorrow will include more writing of the report, and completing one of my research guides.