INTE

6710 ~ Creative Designs for Instructional Materials Project 1: Pecha Kucha Presentation Design Document Ryan McClintock
February 1 9, 2 012

1. Significant Purpose The teaching profession has become increasing more collaborative as networking is overtaking isolation in terms of how teachers should operate. Teachers must recognize this shift and take advantage of the many tools available to help them connect with their fellow educators, both local and distant. Developing and expanding a Professional Learning Network, or PLN, should be integral parts of every teachers desire to continue to learn, and well, put simply, do better. Twitter is a microblogging, information-pushing, collaborative tool or social network that can serve as teachers PLNs and as a major part of their Professional Learning (or Development) throughout the year. So much useful information is passed along via Twitter on a daily basis. Some estimates have the average number of tweets (Twitter-talk for the messages posted to Twitter) at over 65 million per day. Yet many teachers are hesitant to learn and use this valuable technology. Its my position that teachers will do better by creating Twitter accounts, learning how to Tweet and follow other professionals, manipulate Twitter hashtags and lists, and, in general, utilizing as a Professional Learning tool to become more creative and engaging. Be encouraging teachers to use Twitter, they will not only develop a country-wide, indeed world-wide, PLN, they will also improve communication and collaboration within their own districts and buildings. Schools, especially high schools, are busy places filled with students, teachers, parents, and administrators. Teachers are busy people. Unfortunately, most of the hustle and bustle of a school building renders makes truly effective collaboration difficult to achieve. Many teachers work closely with one or two of their colleagues to design material, but these interactions often take place in several pockets within the building. Consequently, its not unusual for one group of collaborating teachers to not know what another group of teachers is working on or is creating. Teachers must be encouraged to communicate with more than their closest colleagues. Doing this, however, is challenging. If more teachers and administrators were effective Tweeters then I believe a building would be an inspired and truly connected place to work. Teachers would be able to keep up with colleagues they normally do not see or interact with very often. A major result of this would be an exponential increase in creative lesson design that moves beyond a particular content. History teachers and science teachers will find opportunities to overlap material simply as a result of knowing each contents areas of focus. Administrators will be able to quickly pass along information that may normally require a face-to-face meeting before or after school.
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More and more teachers using Twitter will also lead to improved technological abilities. Many tweets describe successful implementations of technology. These tweets often link to blog sites that can, almost in step-by-step fashion, instruct readers how to use the new tools. Such readings will almost certainly encourage teachers to do better by learning new skills. 2. A Picture of the Future Much of the language and style involved in learning to professionally tweet translates to other common social networks like LinkedIn, Google+, and even Facebook. Symbols like # and @ become a part of ones vernacular and further encourage users to seek better ways to learn new skills and keep current with their particular content areas. The potential spinoffs that will result from teachers becoming more confident with their newfound connectivity are practically endless. From using back-channel discussion technology during Professional Development sessions where parallel conversations can serve to enhance the material being discussed to effectively utilizing Twitter hashtags to converse with other teachers about specific ideas, developing and networking via a Twitter PLN can take a school and its teachers to a higher level. Twitter functions from the web (www.twitter.com), downloaded programs, smartphones, iPads and tablets, and as browser extensions. When teachers begin using Twitter professionally, they will no doubt understand and manipulate these various ways to communicate and will also begin to really appreciate cloud-based technologies. By tweeting and developing a Twitter PLN, teachers are launching themselves into higher dimensions of connectivity, communication, and collaboration. After viewing this presentation, I expect participants to: Create Twitter accounts Send a first tweet Follow me on Twitter Follow each other on Twitter Mention others in a tweet Send a Tweet linking to a website Hashtag a tweet Reply to a tweet Retweet a message Comparing names of participants to newly formed Twitter accounts will serve to measure the effectiveness of my presentation in achieving these outcomes. Once they sign up and send their first tweets, it will be easier to encourage them to continue their efforts, regardless of location, as I can contact them via their Twitter accounts. Though some teachers will no doubt resist my efforts, I will focus on those that choose to
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learn and connect and hope their efforts will simply increase the network and the speed with which my colleagues try to do better and become increasingly more effective teachers. 3. Clear Design Values Design Decision #1: Bald Eagle/Twitter Bird. In looking for a simple, yet unexpected idea that viewers would remember, I thought of the contrast between the cute little Twitter bird and a powerful bald eagle. I thought it would be interesting if a bald eagle looked upset because it couldnt tweet, while the Twitter bird was identified as more powerful, thus an analogy for using a Twitter network.

I found an image of a bald eagle looking at the viewer. After a bit of work, it was ready for its slides. The first slide has it saying, I wish I knew how to tweet! followed by an image of the Twitter bird. I used the eagle later in the presentation, but this time it said, I can really tweet now!

This image, coupled with the content of the presentation, may stick with viewers. Chapters 1 and 2 in Heath & Heath discuss the power of simplicity and unexpectedness in ideas that stick.
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 Design Decision #2: Black/White Contrasting Slides. I was looking for a way to introduce viewers to the symbols of Twitter, namely the @ and # symbols. To arrange these symbols on one slide meant Id need to utilize my space wisely and color combination so that my information would pop to the viewer. I chose to contrast black with white on alternating backgrounds. I placed the black @ and # symbols over a white background next to their descriptions written in white font over a black background. The result was mentioned specifically by my reviewers as a positive usage of Garr Reynolds design principles (Presentation Zen, pgs. 82-90).

Design Decision #3: Numbers on Slides. Several of the presentations slides required me to guide the viewer with my voice and visually. I chose to use 1,2,3 numbers on the slide depicting a tweet to accomplish this. Pages 190-192 of Presentation Zen helped me accomplish this design while sticking to the parameters of a Pecha Kucha presentation.

Design Decision #3: Dorsey Image. I thought if I incorporated an image of the creator of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, I could help make my message stick by making the presentation a bit more personal (Reynolds, pg. 189). I found a nice image of Dorsey and was able to modify it off-center to the right of a slide to both emphasize the text and draw attention to Dorseys

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image (Reynolds, pg. 167). Though not mentioned specifically by my reviewers, I like this slide and think it does function as designed.

Design Decision #4: Dorsey Notes. I was able to find an image of Dorseys notes brainstorming his idea for Twitter. By setting this image as the background for the slide with minimal text, I hope the viewers eyes are drawn to his notes, which are somewhat understandable in that they describe networked text messages. (Reynolds, pgs. 49, 52-54)

Design Decision #5: Omit Bulleted Lists. I chose to interpret Reynolds Avoid Clutter (Reynolds, pg. 38) as avoiding bulleted lists. This presentation a bulleted list could have summed up the how to create an account portion of the presentation rather concisely, but without important visuals. Instead I used screenshots of the account exemplified in the presentation. Animated motion (Ken Burns effect) may also help viewers guide through the image instead of a bulleted list.

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4. Formative Evaluation Response Prior to asking my five peer review questions, I asked them about their experience with Twitter, to add context to their responses: How do you identify yourself with regards to Twitter? a. Enthusiastic tweeter b. Occasional tweeter c. Ive never tweeted I asked this question because I wanted to know the experience-levels of my reviewers. One reviewer indicated she was an occasional tweeter; the other indicated she was an enthusiastic tweeter, though she doesnt use Twitter her work involves aspects of social media. Here are the five additional questions I asked my peer reviewers to consider: Peer Review Question 1: I thought it was important to discuss the spark and creation of Twitter prior to the How To portion. How do you think this portion of the talk impacted the rest of the talk? I asked this question of my reviewers because I was not entirely sure if the historical piece needed to be incorporated into the presentation. I thought it was important to discuss the origins of Twitter, but I was not sure if it flowed with the rest of the How to use Twitter conversation. Here are my reviewers comments:
I think that the history and purpose of Twitter add value to your presentation. You might simply say what youre going to say as you describe what is included in the Twitter 101 presentation. You could actually say that Twitter 101 will help you to understand the history, vision for, purpose of and/or power of Twitter. A lesson that jumped out at me when I was first introduced to Twitter was something like its not what you tweet, its who you follow. You have visually demonstrated this by following key Twitter accounts that our cohort and others with similar interests will surely notice. Rather than teaching the audience some tips for finding key accounts to follow, you say that they can skip the step of following others when prompted. Maybe this lesson would be more in line with your subject (Twitter 101) than the history? Specifically, you could probably replace history that begins at the 1:00 markyou had already touched on much of this earlier.
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*************** I always like to have a little background. I think it was nice to have in there especially since as a seasoned user, I was familiar with most of the 101 information, but I did learn a little in the history portion. As you acknowledged there are a few pauses, you could fill it in with a little extra info on the history. Also, you mention SMS without much explanation. For the audience you are targeting, those who need help signing up for twitter, Im guessing a term like SMS might be unknown, perhaps you could reference the full term instead of just the acronym.

My feedback was conflicted. One reviewer suggested omitting the history portion in lieu of a who to follow portion. My other reviewer appreciated the historical reference, but thought I might want to elaborate a bit on the term SMS. I chose to keep the historical portion and narrate the meaning of SMS to my viewers. I decided to forgo the who to follow portion because my design for a Twitter 102 presentation will go into this in much more detail. Peer Review Question 2: Are any of the slides too busy or distracting? Please explain. I wanted to know if any of my design was distracting from the content of the presentation. I figured feedback about small modifications would help my slide design. Here are the responses from my reviewers:
I watched the video a few times (pausing, back-tracking and playing again) and I think the slides are all terrific. I wish I knew exactly where it is in Heath & Heath that they discuss the curse of knowledge (something like that). I might think that the images with all of the accounts that you follow and the tweets on the screen are great because I recognize them and know what I am looking at. If you were truly creating a product for beginners, they might not agree with me. It would probably be more valuable to get feedback from someone who is new to Twitter for this particular question. In the spirit of providing at least one recommendation for enhancement, you might enlarge the profile details on the image appearing around the 3:50 mark so that the details are easier to read. Even if this image overlaps the one behind it quite a bit, you will not be covering anything important on the background image. You could also draw attention to the Edit Profile button with a circle, arrow or highlight, perhaps.

***************
First of all I want to call out the slides that I think did a really great job of incorporating Garrs principles. The one with the Eagle at the beginning and the one that explains @ mentions and # hash tags are really clear and visually interesting while maintaining
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simplicity. I like your use of Garrs suggestion to make the text tilted a bit. The one slide I found a bit too busy was at 5:09, I wanted to read the whole tweet and absorb all the arrows, 20 seconds wasnt quite enough for that combined with listening to the narration. Perhaps you can break this lesson up into 2 or 3 slides and just use one item per slide. For example a tweet with only an @mention, then a slide with only a hash tag. If you dont have enough slides for that to work with, then perhaps use an example tweet with only one hash tag so its easier to see/read.

I incorporated feedback for this question from both of my reviewers. I enlarged the Edit Profile image per the first review. To incorporate the second review, well, both really, I utilized a Ken Burns feature in iMovie so the focus of the slide moved in a direction consistent with the narrative. After doing this I found the problematic slide she mentioned to be less of an issue and easier to read. Peer Review Question 3 Was the eagle character obvious throughout the presentation? What can be done to make his character more obvious, but not distracting? Here are my reviewers comments:
I did notice that you used this character throughout the presentation. If you wanted it to seem more like you are telling his story, maybe you can introduce him and call more attention to him (i.e. the INTE 6710 Eagle). You could also include little images of him on different slides with thought bubbles including his own commentary on what you are presenting. In other words, you could give him a personality. If you did nothing to add a greater eagle-presence, I think it would be fine. The presentation is good and the eagle character is really secondary.

***************
I think the Eagle character was obvious. I liked the idea of him as a theme throughout. It is especially clear when the Twitter bird ponders his strength in comparison to the eagle. If you wanted to add slightly more emphasis, perhaps you could add some sort of visual with the twitter bird somehow besting or sitting atop the eagle at the end. Perhaps inflate the Twitter bird so hes bigger than he really should be in comparison to the eagle.

Both reviewers comments were incorporated into my revision. I chose to mention the Eagle in my revised narrative and partially animate the Twitter bird to give it more presence.

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Peer Review Question 4: What recommendations can you make about this presentation as a whole (e.g., slides, narration, etc.)? Here are my reviewers comments:
I think the slides are great! My two favorites (the stickiest for me) are the eagle who wants to learn to tweet and then the Twitter bird wondering if hes more powerful than an eagle. Great use of color, image and Presenting with Type! When you re-do your audio track, Id imagine that your story will sound more authentic. In the first draft, it sometimes sounds like you are reading (and I can hear the paper moving in the background of the audio). *************** Again, as youve already said, the narration could use a little java. I understand how it is when you get very focused on the content and forget to keep your voice animated. You have a very nice speaking voice and you did a great job in the beginning, it just got a bit flat towards the end. Im sure you plan to re-record with a bit more emotion. Other than that I think its generally a great presentation.

To incorporate their feedback meant to spice up my narrative, which I did. I did not want to get off script too much because there were important points I wanted to make and still keep the pace of the presentation appropriate for the parameters of the project. By speaking with more presence and animation I think I may have improved the from the draft narrative. Peer Review Question 5: What did you learn from this presentation? Here are my reviewers comments:
I was not aware of the history and had never seen the founder/creator of Twitter before. I thought that this part was interesting. Your presentation left me wanting to see the 102 and 103 presentations! *************** I learned a little bit about the background of Twitter. Had I not been aware of how Twitter hash tags and @ mentions work, I would have certainly understood those better. Its a bit tough to know for sure since its something I already understand. One question I get a lot from the 101 crowd is, why tweet? So if youre looking to put in any further
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information perhaps you can explain that a little. To many people, and to me at first, it is pretty unfathomable that people want to put out 140 character blurbs to the world. They just dont get it. I think getting it is part of understanding the tool. One thing that helped me, was comparing it to a post on a persons Facebook account. Its pretty much the same thing, just in a slightly different context. Yes, there are many more differences and audience variances, but for the 101 crowd that might work. Or perhaps an example of how its used in real life, such as a web programmer who needs help with a bit of code, tweeting to all his coding friends when hes a bit stuck and they help solve his problem. Or any other example of how people make use of Twitter, I like the one about using it to communicate about rebellions overseas since it was a network the government couldnt shut down. But perhaps thats going too far for 101.

In keeping the parameters of the project, I would end up making up to four presentations to thoroughly address the total needs of my colleagues. I would consider breaking up this presentation into a Why Tweet? and How to Get Started presentations. The next two would still be consistent with what I had already envisioned, Advanced Uses and Professional Uses. The drive behind this presentation and any future productions is to introduce my colleagues to the power of a Professional Learning Network, PLN, via Twitter. Bibliography
Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008). Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive. New York: Random House. Medina, J. (2008). Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle, WA: Pear Press. Reynolds, G. (2009). Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

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