Die erste Frage in jedem neuen Semester: Gibt es eine goldene Regel?

Nein, werde ich anfangs sagen.

Jeder Vortragende ist anders, jede Zuhörergruppe ist anders. Es kommt immer drauf an. Was bei Frau Müller eine Rolle spielt (nervöses Rumzuppeln am Schal, unleserliche Folien) spielt bei Frau Meier keine Rolle, weil ihre bewegte Stimme und ihre klare Satzstruktur das überdecken.

Ja, werde ich am Ende sagen. Eine Regel gibt es dann doch.

Erst denken. Dann Folien entwerfen.

Und selbst die gilt nicht immer und für alle. Manchmal fängt man mit einem Bild im Kopf an und alles andere folgt.

Für die meisten aber ist Scribbeln eine gute Idee. Analog planen, digital umsetzen. Das geht auf Papier, aber auch z.B. am iPad. Ich nehme dafür gerne Penultimate, eine 0,79-Cent-App, die das Entwerfen ganz einfach macht und verschiedene »Papiersorten« anbietet: kariert, liniert, blanko. Mit Rand, ohne Rand.

Ganz wunderbar geeignet für Vortragende ist das Storyboard-Layout. 

Wenn Sie noch nach einem geeigneten Stylus fürs iPad suchen: Hier eine schöne Übersicht von 12 Stiften.

Natürlich können Sie auch auf Papier scribbeln. Oder Bierdeckel. Hauptsachen, Sie denken darüber nach, was Sie wie sagen wollen, bevor Sie präsentieren.

Quietube lets you watch videos distraction free. On black or white. Nice to know. Nice to have. Even nicer to use. Supports YouTube, Vimeo, BBC iPlayer and others. Lets you create shortened link for the distraction free version. 

You may also want to try a related Chrome extension called Turn Off the Lights that does just that.

Prüfungstage sind so sehr Metatage.

Und ich fotografiere (digicamknipse) eine Studentin, die einen Workshop StopMotion durchführt [eine Canon D7, wow, und ich tröste meine müde EOS 350D damit, dass es nie, nie nur am Body liegt, und das iPad läuft mit [und was für eine Bereicherung und Erleichterung das ist, bei der Abschlussbesprechung schnell noch mal einen Blick drauf werfen zu können, das Delegieren des eigenen Gedächtnisses, hier, sehen Sie, das sind Sie, das sich In-der-Hand-halten, An-die-Hand-nehmen-können, das kein Camcorder leisten kann, nicht so schnell, weder im Coaching noch in der Prüfung. Amen.]

Wenn es aufregend wird, versagt das digitale Verstehen. Ich brauche Zeiger und eine Londoner Uhr, um zu begreifen, wie spät es ist. Versuchen Sie es ruhig auf Ihren (visuellen) Skripten: Tragen Sie sich Papierzeiten ein. Wann wollen Sie wo sein?

Ihre Sicherheitspakete beinhalten PDFs und Atemübungen und USB-Sticks und embedded fonts, meine Kohlenhydrate. Meine Seite der Prüfung ist soviel überschaubarer. Drei Stifte, ein Zeichenblock, eine Eieruhr, eine Taschenuhr, eine Evaluationscheckliste und die langmütige Hoffnung, dass es auch dieses Jahr so ausgeht, wie jedes Jahr: Besser als erwartet.

Jane Hart from C4LPT, the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, is still accepting contributions for this year’s list of the top 100 learning tools.The list will be finalized and published in November 2011.

A first glance reveals TED, Evernote, iPad (apps), DropBox, StoryBird, SecondLife, and, inevitably, Moodle. Learning still seems to invite the idea of documents (Excel and Word feature, too) but I can see Picasa as well as Audacity, the fabulous Aviary Suite, or Vimeo. Good.

Depending on your background, you may be familiar with many or most of the tools on the list, so you might also want to check out her very well structured directory of 2000+ learning tools. I have just replaced my own learning bookmark collection of the past ten years with this.

Jane’s site is a goldmine of information on all aspects of (social) learning.

If you want to invite the backchannel and embed polls or Twitter into your Keynote presentation, try this posting.

That posting includes many further links, including to two classics, Atkinson’s 2009 book on incorporating the Backchannel and Mitchell’s 2009 e-guide.

Related to this (and just in from my inbox, thx!):

• http://lab.arc90.com/2011/03/21/donahue/
• http://www.donahueapp.com/
• http://go.donahueapp.com/

Looks exciting.

I wonder what the list will look like in two years from now. My bet for my own area (presenting) is on the iPad used as a whiteboard. Scribble while you speak. Show and tell. I also have high hopes for HTML5, as HTML is how my online teaching existence started.

Back in1998, when I launched my first web based learning platform at college, my number one wish was being able to make things move. Now, drag and drop or animated sequences are a availabe at the touch of a finger. Brave new world.

But still I bought a set of new pencils yesterday and a stack of new sketch blocks to organize the upcoming exams and other presenting events. 

Always. Plan. Analog. Digital is only second nature. Yet.

 

This long winter does need a bit of fresh color, and I find myself going astray from my usual preferences for a thousand shades of grey and pondering over some red and green from last year’s apples.

This list of tools by allwebdesignresources.com I just stumbled upon must be the most complete list of color related sites I have come across, ever. It might intimidate you at first, as all long lists tend to, but it is well worth the visit. It is a little dated (2008), admittedly, but that does not make it any worse.

Recently I listed a few color websites here as a starting point for creating color schemes for your presentations.

What works fastest for me personally, is using Adobe Ideas for iPod.

• Choose a pic
• Choose the colors
• Save the color palette
• Scribble on

Later I often just use DigitalColor Meter for Mac to read out any color values.

 

Links in this post:

• List of color tools
• allwebdesignresources.com
• Blog post: Fishing for colors #1
• Adobe Ideas (iTunes App Store)

I have just evaluated and graded some 20+ presentation exams, a few more to come next week. This is a busy time of year and a good time to rethink what works, and what does not.

Paper works.

During the planning stage of a talk, I love to use long strips of card board, those good old-fashioned Metaplan strips.

»This has saved my life,« one of my students said today.

She is talented and smart, and tends to get lost in enthusiasm and ideas. A real Miss What’s-the-Point. In our pre-finals coaching we talked about choreography, beginnings, and endings. And planning on paper.

In her final talk, she is precise, to the point, yet has lost nothing of her vivid self. It is a pleasure listening.

Plan analog. Plan analog. Plan analog.

I still plan every class, every seminar, every workshop that way, and as no one but yourself will ever see this, it does not matter what code you use, and if you mix up your languages, as I tend to. So for all my international readers: Bild means Image.

Green is for reserve ideas. As a young teacher I had to learn that by heart the hard way: You need a didactic reserve.  

[And boy, did I need one that day, back in 1989, during my teacher practice. I was teaching Medieval lyrics to a bunch of 16-year-olds and I just did not know how to go on and had to hand over to my supervisor.]

That was the day I learned to believe in reserves and back-ups. Some 20 years later I also believe in experience and creative thinking, but then that trust is nothing but another kind of hard-earned reserve.

So: Have another video, another game, another question up your sleeve. A reserve can be anything. It can be a flip chart in case the projector dies or if a video does not play. It can be going for coffee with your class if it is too hot to think.

Plan backwards.

Good stories need good endings. Endings, on the other hand, are nervous, twitching cat tails with a life of their own.

So plan backwards: Where do you want your audience to be in 20 minutes? With you? Or gone for a mental walk? If your ending is wrong, you will need to start all over again.

Make ends meet.

Make sure your beginning and ending is connected, related, one of a kind: Start with a question and end with an answer. Start with a problem and show the solution. Start with a quote and end on a counter-quote. There is always a counter-quote. You might even begin and end in silence. Have you ever tried that? Silence is a lovely shade of white...

Whatever you do, make sure your presentation is a whole, not a bag of wildly twitching ideas. 

Connect. In all possible ways.

Connect ideas. Connect words and images. Connect with your audience. And not just because your teacher told you so.

Grades are for college. Connection is for real.