{"id":520,"date":"2020-04-20T16:55:30","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T20:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/capstone.local\/?page_id=520"},"modified":"2020-04-20T16:55:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T20:55:30","slug":"slam-presentation-tips","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/slam-presentation-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"SLAM Presentation Tips"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Below is a list of best practices for SLAM presentation videos collected from feedback on presentations last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Above all else, <strong>tell a story <\/strong>and <strong>have fun<\/strong>. Focus on these two goals, and the rest will fall into place. This doesn&#8217;t mean to be frivolous, or to not take seriously the excellent work you&#8217;ve done all semester. Rather, just remember that you&#8217;re trying to make content that other people will find engaging, and work toward that goal. <\/li><li>Sometimes it can help to <strong>give the audience a guide \/ outline to your sharing<\/strong>. If the content of your presentation is more abstract, give them a three-step (or similar) outline\u2014&#8221;First, we&#8217;ll&#8230;Then&#8230;Finally.&#8221; <\/li><li><strong>Frame everything positively<\/strong>. Nobody but the people in this class (and maybe not even all of them!) know that thing X about your project isn&#8217;t where you might&#8217;ve hoped it would be or that thing Y is &#8220;missing.&#8221; Just talk positively about what you do have and what is present.<\/li><li><strong>Sell the process<\/strong>. Don&#8217;t just say &#8220;here&#8217;s our app,&#8221; talk about the care and effort that actually went into creating it! Obviously there&#8217;s a balance to be struck here (too much process detail is boring), but in general, taking a bit of time to show the audience how much care and intentionality went into your project helps them become more invested in your presentation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Technical Details<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Show your face(s)<\/strong>. Our virtual SLAM already has enough distance added just by videoconferencing. Don&#8217;t be a disembodied voice\u2014at some point, in some way, show the face of each person who speaks on a video. It could be a single Zoom camera window over a screen share, a row of Zoom faces, cuts to full screen faces\u2014whatever works best for your team&#8217;s style.<\/li><li><strong>Good audio is key<\/strong>. People will tolerate poor quality video more than poor quality audio. A few tips:<ul><li>If at all possible, <strong>use a mic besides your built-in device mic<\/strong>. <\/li><li><strong>Place your microphone as close to your face as possible.<\/strong><\/li><li>Whenever possible, <strong>eliminate background noises<\/strong>\u2014turn of air conditioning, fans, etc. If you can&#8217;t eliminate those noises and you&#8217;re recording through Zoom, go to Settings &gt; Audio &gt; Advanced and play around with the option there to see if they help.<\/li><li>Be sure to listen to \/ <strong>edit your recordings with headphones<\/strong>\u2014it&#8217;ll reveal a lot that your laptop speakers won&#8217;t.<\/li><li>Editing your team&#8217;s video? Be sure to <strong>level audio between speakers<\/strong>.<\/li><li>If possible, <strong>surround your audio recording space with soft surfaces<\/strong>\u2014blankets and pillows work great. One student even recommended recording in a closet full of clothes!<\/li><li>Experiment with <strong>background music<\/strong>, either at the beginning \/ end of the presentation, or as subtle padding throughout. Not a requirement or even a suggestion for most presentations, but just something to think about.<\/li><li>A pro move to check out for presentations with multiple presenters in different locations: record some clean <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=room+tone&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8\"><strong>room tone<\/strong><\/a> and mix subtly across all presenters.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>A few subtle things can greatly <strong>increase the quality of your speaker video<\/strong>:<ul><li><strong>Mind your backgrounds<\/strong>! People aren&#8217;t creeps; they&#8217;re just curious! Make sure that everything that can be seen in frame with you is something you want seen.<\/li><li><strong>Add a light source behind your camera<\/strong>. A (curtained) window can work great, but so can a lamp bouncing off of a wall, etc. Experiment with different set-ups until the light on your face is well-balanced with the light in the rest of the room. The video on <a href=\"https:\/\/thewirecutter.com\/blog\/video-call-lighting-tips\/\">this page<\/a> provides a great overview.<\/li><li>If your computer can support them, experimenting with <strong>virtual backgrounds<\/strong> can be fun!<\/li><li>Aim for <strong>tight transitions<\/strong>. Or rather, <strong>intentional transitions<\/strong>. Because we&#8217;re working with video, you&#8217;re in complete control of how smooth or awkward a transition is. Use that control to your benefit.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li>Show, and show a lot. Whenever possible, if you&#8217;re talking about something, especially for more than 5-7 seconds, <strong>show the thing you&#8217;re talking about<\/strong> (instead of static text on a slide).<\/li><li>If you&#8217;re listing three items on a slide, etc., <strong>build in the list one item at a time<\/strong> (vs. revealing all three at once).<\/li><li>Good slide design in general dictates the use of <strong>larger text in a color that clearly contrasts with its background<\/strong>. This is doubly-important for our remote event, since video may appear compressed for some viewers.<\/li><li>Your <strong>screen recordings should be polished<\/strong>\u2014if you&#8217;re launching an app from a home screen, be thoughtful about wallpapers, other apps on the screen, folder names, etc. If you&#8217;re showing a web browser, close all other tabs and hide your bookmarks bar. Be thoughtful about the device frames you use\u2014unless there&#8217;s a project-driven reason to do so, use up-to-date device outlines, etc. And work to eliminate missteps (accidental clicks, moving windows around unnecessarily, etc.)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Below is a list of best practices for SLAM presentation videos collected from feedback on presentations last week. Content Above all else, tell a story and have fun. Focus on these two goals, and the rest will fall into place. This doesn&#8217;t mean to be frivolous, or to not take seriously the excellent work you&#8217;ve &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/slam-presentation-tips\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">SLAM Presentation Tips<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-520","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmi.cool\/capstone\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}