This
semester’s presentations will operate a bit differently from those in the
past. You’ll be creating a PPT
presentation, but we will not be presenting them in class. Instead, you’ll
create the presentation by the deadline on the syllabus, and then you’ll email
the presentation to me. I’ll link it to the syllabus where the rest of the
students in class can access it. The
material on the presentations will be part of Exam 2.
Here’s
how we’ll do it.
1. Each student will create a PPT presentation based on their paper.
2. You will be limited to five slides.
That doesn’t mean a title slide and five slides; that is six slides. It
does not mean five slides and a works cited slide. You don’t need a works cited
slide. Five slides is the limit.
3. Your PPT slideshow will include audio embedded in each slide. If you have not done that before, it’s not
hard.
a. Boot up PPT.
b. Along the top of the page, you’ll see “File” “Home” then “Insert.” Click “Insert.”
c. The next level menu will include “Media.”
Click “Media.”
d. You’ll get a new menu, Click “Audio.”
That gets you a new menu.
e. Click “Record Audio.”
f.
Click the orange dot to start recording. Click the
blue box to stop recording.
g. Click “Okay” to get out of the menu.
You will then see a speaker icon appear in the middle of the slide. Move the cursor over that and you’ll get an
audio bar where you can start and stop playback of your audio. That is how you can review your presentation
and how you will listen to everyone else’s PPT presentations.
h. Hint: Save the file after each slide is recorded.
i.
If you listen to the audio and don’t like what you
said, you just record over what you had for that slide. You should never have to rerecord every slide
just because you made a mistake on one slide.
You can record over the old audio by simply going back through the above
instructions.
j.
I’ve recorded PPT this way for entire classes. After you do it a couple times, you’ll be
great.
k. Any questions, just ask.
4. The trick here is timing. You have
five minutes of audio time across five PPT slides. Each slide’s audio doesn’t need to be the
same length. Some will be longer than others. You’re the expert. You decide how
much time you need to explain the material on each slide. The slides just need
to add up to something under five minutes. A good length for all the audio totaled up is
between 4:30 and 5:00. You’ll be able to
keep track of the length of each slide by using the audio bar on each slide. The audio bar shows the length of the audio.
5. The way to do this is to rehearse it. Then you’ll get an idea of how much
you can say in five minutes (not much) and how much you want to say for each
slide.
6. You will not be giving these presentations in front of the class. You will be emailing the PPT file to me by a
specific deadline. That deadline will be set later in the semester. I will then link the PPT presentations to the
syllabus so the other students can use them.
7. Normally, students present their slides in class for the rest of the
students. A schedule is set for each
group’s presentation and on the day your group is set to present, students will
present their work in order (Origins, Leadership, Support, Strategy,
Counterterrorism). Because we can’t
really do in class presentations this semester, I will assign each group a day
for its “presentation.” I’ll make your PPT presentations available, and the
class will be expected to watch and listen to the PPT presentation for that
group on that specific day. It’s not a
big change. Instead of sitting in class and listening to the presentations
live, the class will listen to the PPT presentations on their own at home.
8. That means that for at least a couple days, there will be no in class
session or lectures. Your class on those
days will be watching the PPT presentations and taking notes just as you would
during one of my lectures.
9. Take this seriously. Don’t blow this off. There will be a question on the
final based on these presentations. If you don’t watch and listen to the
slides, you will have an unhappy final exam.
A
good class presentation is like a good paper—be organized and straight forward.
1.
The
presentations will be five minutes long. You don’t have much time. All you can do in five minutes is essentially
give a beefed-up version of your introductory section of your paper. What is your topic? What were the three or four major findings of
your research? What are your overall conclusions?
2.
To
organize, think as a journalist would. What is the topic and issue at hand:
who? what? where? when? why? Let the audience know immediately what the
question you are addressing is and what the main topic of your presentation
will be. For example, if the topic is al-Qaeda’s leadership, you want to start
off by saying that. “My topic is al-Qaeda’s leadership.” If the specific issue is the difficulty of
penetrating foreign terrorist networks say that. “The issue I’d like to address
is the difficulty of penetrating foreign terrorist networks.”
3.
In
spite of what many might have taught you, the trick is not to sound
intellectual and complex, but to be clear and simple when you speak. Another
example: “My topic is counterterrorism efforts against the al-Shabaab
organization in Somalia. Three groups have been fighting al-Shabaab. The local government, the African Union
peacekeeping forces, led by Uganda, and US and Ethiopian efforts to isolate and
defeat al-Shabab. These efforts have
largely been unsuccessful because no stable government has emerged to really
challenge al-Shabaab’s. It remains the
only organized political force in the nation.”
Then you can have five PPT slides.
The first three can be one each on the three main counterterrorism efforts
you mention above. The fourth can be on
the reasons why they have failed and a fifth can be on what might be done to
fix the problem. You don’t have to
explain who al-Shabaab is or who their allies are or what their goals are
because the other PPT presentations of your classmates have already explained
all that.
4.
Above
all else, be organized, just like you were writing a paper. Put your
presentation into an outline form and then as you speak simply go through your
outline, item by item. Or say, “I want to discuss three reasons why AQ will not
be able to develop and sustain a long-term presence in Southeast Asia. First, the nations in Southeast Asia are much
more prosperous than nations in other parts of the developing world. This will deny AQ a critical mass of
recruits. Second, the nations of
Southeast Asia are democracies or are moving in the direction of democratic
institutions. The ability to freely
criticize governmental policy creates an outlet for political dissent, and
reduces the likelihood that large percentages of the population will radicalize
itself to the point where it may fund and support terrorists even
passively. Three, these nations have
secular traditions, separation of church and state is a basic ideology of these
nations’ institutions. Factors that
might change this, however, could be a long economic down turn or a failure of
public education to maintain a viable alternative to religious education, which
can often be militant in nature.” Then
talk about each one in turn.
5.
Use
the organization of your paper. If your paper had five paragraphs that fits
nicely with five PPT slides.
PowerPoint is
required. Sample PPT slides for al-Shabaab, based on the al-Shabaab Origins
Executive Summary. You must use Power
Point in your presentation. Each student can use at maximum five slides.
1.
PPT
slides must be emailed to me by a date I will set later in the semester. It
will be after your paper is due. Once you turn in the final draft of the paper,
I would begin working on the PPT.
2.
If
anyone has any questions on how to use PPT, please let me know. I can help.
3.
The
criteria for grading the presentation are based in the rubric below. This is what I will use to grade your
presentation and PPT slides. I’ll fill
out one for each of you and hand it back to you along with a grade.
Name____________________________________ Group______________________________
|
Basics |
PPT Style |
Content |
Presentation |
|
· 5 minutes, not
longer? · PPT loaded onto
the classroom computer before class starts? · 5 slides no
more? |
·
Bullet point subject headings, not text? ·
Illustrations? ·
One concept per slide? |
·
Are the important elements of the issue-area
covered? ·
Is there enough depth, but not too much depth (Big
picture issues rather than small details)? ·
Analysis of the key questions? ·
Focus on assigned issue only? |
· Pace · How well does student
seem to know the material? · Reading PPT
slides? · Reading notes or
using them as a reference? · Lecturing based
on knowledge of material? |