Reflection to my own learning on AEP

a) What are the most valuable things you learned about the process of preparing and delivering presentations?

Before taking this course, I'd never prepared as much as I did for this class. I'd never actually rehearsed what I would say nor written down the script. However, to keep myself on the right track during the presentation and to make a good time management, I realized how it is important to have rehearsals beforehand. I tended to become panicked during the speech due to the lack of preparation but by preparing well as I did in this class, I found out such problem could be easily avoided. Now I know that writing the script is not always a good idea as I tend to look at them and fail to make eye contact, but it is still a useful way to organize what I would say in my presentation, and by doing so I can see whether I would be able to finish up within the given time. So as the most valuable thing I learned in terms of preparation, I would say that I learned the effect of preparation itself.

As for the delivering process, I found out that regardless of topics of the presentation, certain level of passion is definitely required. I will talk about more specific skills I've learned for delivering presentation in next paragraph (below), and so as a more general finding, I realized the importance of the speaker's passion toward the topic. As I watched a number of presentations done by members of this AEP class, I saw different levels of their communication skills. However, even if one lacks in using non-verbal communication skill for example, as long as he/she is passionate enough about the topic, the presentation becomes a good one. When I did my 2nd presentation on "How to make cappuccino", I thought that I wasn't successful in making appropriate gestures. However, what I think now after finishing up with the entire AEP program is that it was the best presentation I made throughout this course. This is probably because I talked about my hobby, and that is what I'm most passionate about now. I was able to talk with natural smiles and was enjoying explaining/showing all these steps and machines for making a cup of coffee. In future, I'm sure that there will be times when I can't become passionate about the topic, but in order to make a good presentation, I will try to be enthusiastic as much as possible through careful research and preparations.


b) In what presentation skill areas do you feel you have made progress or improved your awareness?

I think I improved my awareness on making stress and pauses during the speech. Both in Japanese and English, I usually speak fast and put no stress. It just goes and goes on, and so I often realize that I'm making listeners hard to see what my points are. Putting stress on the important words/phrases and making some pauses during the speech let the audience understand the speech better, and I tried to do so in the last presentation in this AEP class. I could have made my stress and pauses even stronger, but I think it was successful enough to grab the attention as well as to make the presentation effective and persuasive as a whole.

As a second point of my improvement, now I know how to lead the Q&A session. I used to consider Q&A time as something optional to the presentation, and not as something important. Lessons on how to repeat/paraphrase the question and phrases for closing the presentation were very useful, which I will definitely use for my future presentations.


c) What points do you want to improve further in your future presentations? How can you improve those?

As I said above, though I am sure that my voice controls in terms of putting stresses and pauses improved, it could become even more stronger to make the presentation more persuasive and impressive. I believe that preparations and rehearsals are essential for achieving this. Doing rehearsals a number of times helps myself remember what I should talk about next, and therefore I will be able to focus more on making effective stresses and pauses.

Use of visuals is another point that I want to improve further in future. Looking at great slides made by AEP members, I learned many tips and ideas for creating good PP slides that I want to use for my future presentations. Also, after my second and last presentations, both of my reflection partners told me that I'm using too much words on one slide. Before taking this course, I wasn't sure what to write down on the PP slide and what to talk about in actual presentation. Nonetheless, now it is clear and there are more to get better.

Final presentation -International Christian University-

Self-Reflection

a) The process of preparation and rehearsal
b) The effectiveness of the introduction
c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body
d) The conclusion and Q&A
e) Use of visuals
f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture
g) Use of voice
h) Other points (as you like)


a) The process of preparation and rehearsal:
Unlike other presentations I had so far in this class, it was a GROUP work and therefore powerpoint visuals and the speech content needed to be shared with my members beforehand. Unfortunately, we did not have time for rehearsal. However, we spent so much time on making slides after the class as well as at home using emails. Despite the fact that we couldn't make it to gather up for rehearsal, we were prepared enough for our presentation in terms of making coherency in our individual speeches. Each of us (Mai, Sho and myself) was working very well for research and creating PP slides.

b) The effectiveness of the introduction:
The introduction was made by Mai, and I believe it was very effective as she proposed a question with impressive slides she made. The way she connected the question to our theme (ICU)was also very effective and natural(Global issues, How could they be solved, What we need, People who can take actions needed, ICU is providing active human resources). Rather than starting the presentation simply from the introduction of ICU, I think that making general question helps more to grab the audiences' attention.

c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body:
I believe that the organization of the content was very well done as we spent a long time on making PP slides. Each of us successfully connected our individual speech to another, and moreover, mentioning our names and reflecting what others talked about in our own section made the presentation very organized as a whole.
In terms of persuasiveness, we could have made it better. As Matt gave us a question in the Q&A session, we did not clearly mention how much money on what we would be spending on if we received the financial aid. This vagueness made the entire presentation less persuasive compared to others, which the plans for spending money was clearly stated. We had been aware of this problem before the actual presentation, but could not propose the plan since we had no time and also since we were not sure at all about the ICU's real expense distribution. We tried to achieve persuading the audiences by vocal controls and non-verbal expressions, and it seems we were successful in doing so on the video, but could have been even better by changing the content.

d) The conclusion and Q&A:
The conclusion Sho made was effective as the slides he made were also visually impressive. Each of us made sure about the question by restating what the audience said, and answered clearly.

e) Use of visuals:
Thanks to the great techno-genius Mai, I'm sure that the visuals of this presentation was very much sophisticated. We used a lot of pictures which certainly worked to gain the attention. Just for the future presentation, a little bit less use of words per slide could make it even better. The theme was rather a serious one, so the AEP members told me that they took time to read the text and to understand the main message of each slide.

f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture:
My personal goal for this presentation was to make strong, persuasive body language. Compared to the first presentation I made in this class, I improved in controlling these non-verbal communication. Although I had notes with me while presenting, I tried not to look at them too much and instead I focused on making eye contacts. Our topic was about our own university and so that we had been discussing that we should not be too serious. Watching the recorded video, we were all tranquil, and were making gestures appropriate to the topic.

g) Use of voice:
What I think I improved the most through this presentation is the use of pause and stress. To show my confidence and calmness, I used pauses as much as possible and for the words which I thought were important like "harmony in diversity"and "essential", I put stress. There is even more to improve, but my use/control of voice was appropriate and worked to create the persuasiveness in the speech.

h) Other points (as you like)
I realized that I sometimes make "fake" smiles to hide my nervousness. It makes myself seem less confident. For the next future presentation, I hope to quite this habit.

Presentation 2 self-analysis

Improved than last presentation in terms of voice controlling. Some pauses/stress effectively performed during the presentation.

Goals for future presentations:
-More eyecontacts to the audience
-Keep away from moving hands while making a speech. Better than last time, but more to be avoided.

Presentation #2

PAL for my 2nd presentation

My 2nd presentation will be on [how to make a cappuccino with latte art]

*cappucino: italian styled coffee with foamed milk.
latte art: a technique to draw some designs on top of coffee using foamed milk.


Purpose:
The purpose of the presentation is not to let the audience be able to make a cappccino as it requires a special machine to make foamed milk. Rather, I want the audience to know how those artistic cappuccino are made, so that they will enjoy drinking it more when they get to see it next time.

Audience:
My AEP class mates and professor Mark.

Logistics:
Short video to show how a cappuccino with latte art is made (30sec.)
Power Point presentation (3~4min.)
Different video of making a cappuccino as a review (30sec.)
Q & A


Goal:
・To prove that latte art is simply a technique of pouring foamed milk. (Many people misunderstand that the designs are drawn using tools.)
・To introduce my passion for coffee and hopefully, make the audiences get to enjoy drinking coffee.

Introduction ACTP analysis

This would be an example to show what the audience would feel
when performing a presentation without a concrete, clear introduction.

Attension-getter: Average~Not good
The title of the presentation is very appealing. However, probably due to the time management, Katick started with just simply saying "Hi", and then moved to the topic directly. Although there is a very brief explanation about the dancing bear using a visual slide, this is not enough. As a concequent, even though I ended up with enjoying the presentation (because I love bears), I was little bit confused and took time to understand what the 'dancing bear' is all about, and its relating problems.


Credibility: Katick introduced the reseach on the bears that his group is undertaking since 1995; nevertheless, it is not quite helpful to build the credibility toward him among the audiences. He might have been introduced by the MC beforehand.


Topic: It is clear that his topic is 'dancing bear', but the problem is that the audiences, who are not familiar with his previous reseach, probably never heard of it. He should have explained about his topic more in detail.


Preview of points: Katick did not give the preview at all. Though it is a very short presentation, he could have given a very short list of points that he is going to talk about.

1st Presentation Self-Analysis

Presentation No.1 Reflections and Self-Analysis

1. Successfully achieved purpose / main message?

Reflection: My goal was to convey the thoughts of Sri Chinmoy. As the theme was rather complicated (and due to the time provided), I attempted to make my presentation as simple as possible to let the audience understand only the basis of his ideas. The reflection from the audiences in later class was fine, and one of my goals for this 1st presentation, voice controling(speaking outloud, clealy and slowly), went successful. Still, there are many to be improved, as written below in detailes.


2. Use of voice? (rhythm, emphasis, pausing, variation)

Reflection: My goal was to speak clearly and slowly, and I believe that it was achieved. Nontheless....

Ideas for Improvement:...definitely more varieties of voice controling is required for next presentations. Creating my own rhythm, showing passions(or happiness, sadness, etc)using my voice, having pauses, and there are many other powerful effects possible with controling own voice.


3. Use of body language? (posture, gestures, eyes, face)

Reflection: When watching at the recorded video of myself presenting, I realized that I move hands too much, and my face expression is rather contradicting to the theme. I could have been a little bit more serious or tranquil considering the topic I talked about. Non-verbal communication should be very much improved by the next presentation.

Ideas for Improvement: For my next presentations, it would be better to think about the theme more carefully, so that I will be able to use the appropreate and more effective body language.


4. Use of visuals? Preparation & Rehearsal Process?

Reflection: When I was rehearsaling a day bofore the presantaion day, I thought the number of slides may be too little. However, the presentation including Q & A session, ended up to be just within the time. I think that the type of visuals was appropreate, and that I spent enough time for preparation and reheasals.

Ideas for Improvement: Preparations and rehearsals went well because the presentation was only 3min long. If it were longer one, I would really need to start looking for visuals, making PP and reheasals much more beforehand.