Posts Tagged ‘astronaut’
May 19th, 2009 | 
Author: If you remember Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey, ” you might recall when the space ship’s HAL 9000 computer says to Dave the astronaut, “I know you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.” Is that what you feel like without your PowerPoint file when giving a presentation? That’s a bit disturbing, yes? If this is so, your PowerPoint file has taken over!
In order to recover your dignity as a presenter and prowess using PowerPoint, we must get back to the basics. First, we will cover what it means to give a good presentation. Second, we can look at the purpose and value of using PowerPoint. Finally, we will consider how you can overcome common tendencies of presenters with some hints and tricks to engage your audience with your presentation.
You engage the audience, not the prop! It is perfectly understandable that in this rapid paced world, we all want to press a button, plug in, or clap on-clap off for results. When you do this with an audience of live people, you start sounding and behaving like a HAL 9000 and I am sure many of us did not make it through that movie for the monotonous voice of the main character! You must remember that you engage the audience, not the prop! A good presenter is like a good jazz musician. You must know the song: your main point. You must know the melody: the points you expect to cover. Finally, you must know your audience so that you can wow and amaze them with what they might be surprised to hear. Start with writing a thesis that includes your interest to inform in terms of their interest to learn. Next, block out basic points and consider props you can use to describe your points with that audience in mind. Finally, consider your arsenal of presentation tools and how you can align them with the introduction, supporting points and call to action or conclusion.
Uh…Hello! Step away from your PC or Mac and consider your list of presenter tools! We know that PowerPoint can give visuals to reinforce points with pictures, bullets, charts and even movies. Now, remember that a good presenter uses body movement, the dynamics of his voice, topic related props and my favorite of all, the audience themselves with questions, games or demonstrations! The people in your audience retain information differently, therefore it is critical that you use a variety of tactics to engage their senses and make the presentation memorable for all. If you simply click F5 to slide show, you can be replaced with a HAL 9001! Besides, most people do not want to get a break from their computer screen to sit back and follow along with a projected version of yours.
PowerPoint is a modernized overhead- not cue cards! Ah, PowerPoint? How lovely art thou! Already one year past our legal drinking age, PowerPoint was derived from a product called Presenter developed by Forethought and sold to Microsoft before they created the Windows platform. As the story goes, this application was designed to replace the expense of making and sending high-quality 35mm slides between companies. Do you remember these slides? These projectors? And not to mention editing these when we made a mistake! PowerPoint today is a multimedia software application that can be used to present, make handouts/signage and even create self-running and interactive shows on the internet or via CD ROM. This is why presenters love this tool but some have mistaken PowerPoint for box of cue cards with taped on pictures. That is not exciting! During your presentation, it is fine to use PowerPoint to reinforce your point and objectives. Maybe you have the freedom to become Carrot Top but most of us are expected to use a PowerPoint throughout the presentation using either a linear or a pictorial wheel style to articulate and reinforce our information.
Do I use a Linear or Pictorial Wheel style? First, one must think outside of the application and discern which style best suits your audience. A linear presentation guides your presentation on screen with your main point, supporting bullets in multilevel fashion. This is the traditional style you may find yourself editing passed on from others. Ensure that you have no more than 6 bullets per slide, use no fonts smaller than 24 points, and no more than 2 font styles and font colors (if you can help it) per slide. Vary and simplify your slides by avoiding paragraphs or using bullet lists on every slide. Be frugal, consistent and creative with animations, slide transitions and especially sounds. Take advantage of movie clips, charts, tables and diagrams one slide at a time. You may also incorporate links to hidden slides, applications or websites to objects or sentences so that you can elaborate further on a topic according to your audience. A Pictorial Wheel style gets the audience away from just following a slide show. Using this style, you would make many slides that express only one point using pictures, movies or specific complex animations. Next, you would need to use slide sorter view, to create thumbnail buttons you can place on the first slide. During the presentation, you can simply click one of these thumbnail pictures that are cleverly linked to a matching hidden slide in your presentation and conveniently linked back to your first page of thumbnail buttons. You choose how to reinforce your points and can easily elaborate on others as it interests the audience. As you can see, this design could be very useful for sales people who do not always impress with “we will get to that.” All presentation styles benefit from giving an outline handout but do not mistake this with a duplicate of the presentation. That’s a complete spoiler! In either scenario, the idea is that you maintain your flexibility to give your presentation in an indispensable, memorable and flexible way that caters to your ever changing and diverse audiences.
Finding Confidence outside the ppt. file: Some final tips So why do we ever let the machine dominate us? Maybe we feel the need to get it right consistently, or over with swiftly, or pack in everything we thought our audience ever wanted to know. How many stars, how many reason, right? I repeat, step away from the PowerPoint and back away slowly! You need an outline, 2 lists, a PowerPoint and then, Practice! That is a real presentation. First phase, start in Word or on paper to make your points as noted above. Your presentation is about your audience, not you. Next phase, create 2 vital lists and then, your PowerPoint file. First list what Presentation tools can we use to reinforce the points to be covered? Consider time and group dynamics. Second list will include what will be needed to successfully deliver the overall presentation (ie. props, presentation space, printouts and projector/white boards, schedule of guest speaker, microphone, flash drive, laptop, etc.). Only if you have created this outline and these lists, may you now safely approach the red PowerPoint icon to discern which style will use to make a template or tweak the file you are given. Alas, you are preparing a real presentation and not just a PowerPoint ppt. file. Good job …but you are not finished yet! For the final phase, there is no avoiding the need for live rehearsal, assembling of your props, running through your games or questions as well as having your associated handouts and demonstrations updated for that new audience. We can package this up in a folder but if we have not reviewed and updated our presentation, we will deliver like an out- of- date HAL 9000 and the audience will wonder where to trade us in!
So ‘Dave’, are you ready for your Presentation Odyssey? Astronauts have to be a bit smarter than gerbils to figure their way back to earth when the space flight has issues. Therefore remember that you are in charge and you need to get to know the mechanics of your PowerPoint software so that you can apply some of the tips mentioned here as well as reinforce your points by knowing your outline. Take a course on presentation skills and also take note of genius strategies you see used to engage a professional audience elsewhere. Be indispensable, flexible and memorable. That’s good jazz. Have a nice flight!
Billy Gee is a Presentation and PowerPoint trainer at Training Connection – Los Angeles. Training Connection delivers business skills and computer training courses. Details on classes can be found at http://www.trainingconnection.com.
Article Source: Do not be used by PowerPoint, Use PowerPoint to Present!
Barbie is arguably one of the most popular dolls for girls growing up today. This charismatic little figurine has shown that it is perfectly possible for girls to become astronaut doctors who occasionally pick up work as a flight attendant. I guess that’s how you pay for all those dream homes. The point is that Barbie has and will always be a strong figure for girls. They will grow up playing with Barbie dolls and their new tastes will probably cause a desire for the plethora of other Barbie paraphernalia that floods the market.
This is what I’ve always had a problem with when it comes to toys. There is always more things to buy. You can never just buy one set and be the hero. You are constantly pressured to buy the car to go with the house. Then you need the movie about the road trip. Then you need the game about the drive home. It turns into one insane chain of “if you give a mouse a cookie.” You are constantly buying more and more things to keep your daughter happy. This will quickly make you the nice parent with the empty wallet. You are going to have to adapt a bit if you want your girl to have fun with their favorite character without a big expense on your part.
I am talking about the greatest gift we’ve ever received from the demigod Al Gore. The Internet has grown and flourished to provide an environment for entertainment that is unmatched. The online arcade in particular rises as one of the best forms of entertainment. It grants you all the fun of video games without pouring on the blemish of a high price tag. In fact just about every online arcade will be able to give you Barbie games at the astonishing cost of zero dollars.
I may just have to explain this a bit further. There are many online arcades that are actually dedicated to providing games for girls. This means that they’ll be able to happily browse for new Barbie games without even leaving the site. You now have the best of both worlds. They have an amazing variety of games at their disposal but none of them cost anything. If you bought a retail video game you’d receive one longer game that locked them into one activity. If they like it, good. If they don’t, then they’re going to be awfully bored awfully fast and want something more.
I guess that’s the last point that I want to drive home. You aren’t just doing this to be cheap. The beauty of an arcade is that they can take little samples of a whole bunch of games. If they get bored then can switch to an entirely different game with about 3 clicks. You are effectively getting one great package of games for free. All of this comes from just taking the short bit of time to show your daughter how to really enjoy the many games that are available for girls. They are out there and they don’t all cost an arm and a leg.
Find and play all your favourite Barbie Games over at Jogos para Meninas.
. Visit Barbie Games Online.
Article Source: Barbie Games Online
Every child has a dream of becoming somebody awe inspiring someday. Some would want to grow up to become a lawyer. Some would want to become a doctor. They would say: “I want to become a doctor so that I could cure sick people!” For boys, I guess what tops on this “when I grow up list” is to become an astronaut: everyone seems to have undergone the astronaut phase. (Case in point: Toy Story where Buzz Aldrin replaced the cowboy toy) Some poor souls want to become lawyers. (only heaven knows for what reason!) A few noble ones would want to become teachers– “So that we could mould the minds of the future!” (Pretty mature reason for a child.) For girls, the most favored profession is: “I want to be a famous actress or a fashion model!” It figures. Most of them are vain. Hehe
But as far back as I could remember, all I ever wanted was to be involved in games. I love games. I love the feel of being transported to a different world. I am perpetually amazed how a game could make you forget the time and make you forget a problem. Do you have a problem with your love life? Play counterstrike! Imagine that the evil and vile love of your life face on a terrorist and shoot it with a machine gun. Exterminate! Obliterate! Oops I am sorry. I am getting out of line here. Anyway, I have been envious of professional game players. They go from one tournament to another and earning money while playing computer games. Then they get to win really cool prizes like a top of the line PC or the latest release mobile phone. Talk about lucky people.
I have mentioned that I love playing games. Unfortunately, games do not like me. I suck at playing games. No matter how long I have played at a game, once I reached a point where I know the basics, I do not seem to improve. My friends almost always kick my ass in whatever games we play. In Defense of the Ancients (a popular game mode in Warcraft III), my friends would make it a tradition to hunt my character for I am an easy kill. They would say: “Hey guys! Check out the free 200 gold here!” and they would just laugh.
I know then that if I can’t be a gamer I would be a game developer. Blessed with an eye for details and syntax construction, I studied IT in college. Flash has been my favorite software and pretty soon, I began developing flash games for Bratz games. After graduation, I was formally taken by the company that makes Bratz games and I try to update the Bratz games site. I try to make Bratz games fun and simple to play and pretty soon positive comments flow my way. My little nephews and nieces love playing Bratz games and I found great satisfaction in my work every time I see them smile.
Lea Smith is a bratz dolls enthusiast and she loves to play various Bratz Games . She is also the webmaster of www.bratzgames.biz wherein you can find tons of great online flash games to play.
Article Source: Tales of a Bratz Game Developer