¡ IT6710 ¡– ¡Creative ¡Designs ¡for ¡Instructional ¡Materials ¡ Ginger ¡Nichols ¡ ¡ Design ¡Document ¡– ¡Presentation ¡Prowess ¡ November ¡15, ¡2009 ¡ 1. Overview ¡ For the Presentation Prowess project, I decided to tell my nephew Seamus’ story using the Pecha Kucha presentation style. Seamus is 7 years old and has Autism. This presentation should educate the viewer about Seamus’ story as well as a little bit about Autism in general. 2. Audience ¡ My husband and I walked in the Autism Speaks – Walk for Autism over the summer. I set up a donation website with Seamus’ story on it and sent it out to our family members and friends. We plan to walk again in 2010 and I will send out my presentation to the same people when I ask them for donations. The audience consists of a wide variety of individuals. The ages of the viewers will include the twenty-somethings with whom I work right through Seamus’ grandparents who are in their 60s. 3. Learning ¡Objectives ¡ Viewers of this participation will gain insight into what life is like when you are an Autistic child. ¡ 4. Problem/solution ¡ The inspiration for my presentation is a story that my sister wrote regarding Seamus’ life with Autism. I asked her to do this so people understood why we were participating in the 2009 Colorado Speaks – Walk Now for Autism and posted the story to our donation page. Autism seems to be a hot topic lately and it’s in the news a lot. It’s really great that people are aware of the world Autism and that they associate it with children, but not everyone knows how it impacts the children affected by it. Telling
¡ IT6710 ¡– ¡Creative ¡Designs ¡for ¡Instructional ¡Materials ¡ Ginger ¡Nichols ¡ ¡ Design ¡Document ¡– ¡Presentation ¡Prowess ¡ ¡ November ¡15, ¡2009 ¡ Seamus’ story with pictures in the Pecha Kucha format will help people understand a little bit more about the disorder. Using the pictures of Seamus and the people who help him every day also makes it real for viewers. Seamus is a real person who lives with Autism. ¡ 5. Evidence ¡ I sent out an email to all of our friends and family that sent them to our donation page. I received many replies to my email from family members who see Seamus on a frequent basis that they didn’t really understand what Seamus and his family experienced. My cousin Kim thought that Autism just meant that Seamus had a speech delay. Eric Andrews completed one of the peer reviews of my project. I found what he had to say really interesting. What a touching presentation! I have taught a number of kids with autism but have never heard stories of their childhood; this sheds a lot of light on what it is like to find out your child if affected by autism. Thanks for sharing your story! I was surprised that Eric taught a few kids with Autism but never realized what they were like when they were small children or what their parents went through. It is impossible for teachers to be up on all learning disabilities but by reviewing my project, Eric may have more empathy when dealing with the Autistic and their families in the future. 6. Anecdotes ¡ I chose to tell Seamus’ story from Seamus’ point of view. I could have told it from my sister’s point of view but actually hearing how Seamus feels is more compelling than just saying things about Autistic people in general. Some of the experiences mentioned in the presentations are just assumptions on my sister’s ¡ 2 ¡
¡ IT6710 ¡– ¡Creative ¡Designs ¡for ¡Instructional ¡Materials ¡ Ginger ¡Nichols ¡ ¡ Design ¡Document ¡– ¡Presentation ¡Prowess ¡ ¡ November ¡15, ¡2009 ¡ part. Seamus is 7 now and I’m sure he wouldn’t recall some of the experiences he had when he was 1 or 2. Plus he has an Autism Spectrum Disorder that impacts his communication abilities. 7. Format ¡ This presentation was better suited for the Pecha Kucha format rather than the music video format. I was really excited to try some of the techniques from Vernallis’ Experiencing Music Video (2004) readings for class but the more I thought about it, I don’t see where the medium was the right way to go with my presentation. Although I’ve seen many music videos about serious topics, I just couldn’t figure out how to present my topic in that format. I was also inspired by the Slideshare’s Best Presentation winners and started to build my project in a manner that was similar to something like the Thirst and meet Henry slideshows referenced in the course shell. However, this just wasn’t working given the topic and my limited skills. Slide 1 is a remnant of this effort that I didn’t want to part with. The Abela worksheets reinforced my decision to go with the Pecha Kucha format. After completing the worksheets, it was the best way to tell this story. 8. Sequencing ¡ There is a sequence of events already tied to Seamus’ story. As Seamus gets older, he displays more signs of Autism. The doctors, therapists, and his parents work with him to help him deal with the disorder. Because the story is told in linear fashion, I didn’t have the opportunity to make too many sequencing decisions. Slides 1 and 2 allowed me to play with the sequence a bit. I started with some general information about Autism on slide 1. This acknowledges the fact that the viewer probability has heard some big statistic about Autism but it didn’t assign ¡ 3 ¡
¡ IT6710 ¡– ¡Creative ¡Designs ¡for ¡Instructional ¡Materials ¡ Ginger ¡Nichols ¡ ¡ Design ¡Document ¡– ¡Presentation ¡Prowess ¡ ¡ November ¡15, ¡2009 ¡ any importance to the numbers. Then slide 2 personalizes the information. Let’s talk about that one child in 150. In this case he happens to be important because he’s my nephew, but the slide doesn’t call that out. It illustrates the fact that Seamus could be anyone’s brother, son, nephew, etc… Medina states, “The more personal an example, the more richly it becomes encoded and the more readily it is remembered (2008 p. 115). Seamus’ example is very personal to me but the viewer can also associate a personal tie to it as well thus the viewer may retain the message. Slides 1 and 2 also set up the story. Abela states that “people prefer – and are more convinced by – particular facts, information about real people, and actual photographs of things rather than illustrations” (2008, p. 58). These two slides help to illustrate that Seamus is a real person and not just a disorder. That his life is impacted by and he impacts other people’s lives as well. I think it also plays on the fact that the people who view the presentation also have relationships with people in their lives and out of all of them named in the narration, Seamus could fall into one of their relationships. My last decision around sequencing was to include the last slide about Seamus’ future. I could have left this out completely but I thought it would be nice to have some closure to the slideshow. Also I can re-edit it later on to ask people to contribute to Autism Speaks on his behalf when I use it for our fund raising. To some degree it does provide the learner with a resolution (Abela, 2008, p. 78). Tufte writes that content is the most important part of the presentation and I think to not provide some conclusion would leave out some of the content (Tufte, 2006, p. 134). Really my resolution may not happen for years, Seamus may not see any progression in his fight against Autism or he may become a quirky adult. I won’t know for years. ¡ 4 ¡
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