I am always nervous when it comes to doing presentations as I lack confidence to speak enough in front of the whole class. I always move away to avoid doing presentations or I tell my one of my teammates to cover my part and even if I do presentation, I always struggle to cover my part. This lecture has taught me how I can gain confidence to participate in class activities and doing presentations in front of class. I was told to practice a lot before doing the final presentations which helped me to speak confidently.
I watched a video by Julian Treasure. I came to know that there are seven bad habits which everyone of us should avoid such as gossip, judging, negativity, complaining, excuses, lying and then dogmatism. Instead we should follow HAIL which are Honesty, Authenticity, Integrity, and Love. Voice is one of the powerful tools, using our voice in appropriate ways can deliver the message effectively and also make us professional communicator.
I watched another video to further learn about body languages when doing presentations. A video by Alex Lyon, he tells that there are few important things we should consider which are eye contact and a smile. A good posture and hand gestures can add colour to our speech. The pause and nod method make sure the audience are listening instead of getting lost.
The final video I watched was about avoiding mistakes in PowerPoint presentation, a video by David JP Phillips. The only important thing which literally helped me is that he pointed out the six things that will surely make big differences than we do before which are:
One slide for one topic.
Using big fonts.
Using contrast in appropriate places to show content clearly.
Always avoid sentences or paragraphs.
Using darker background for appropriate contents.
Using pictures or ideas maximum 6 in a single slide.
Before watching those videos above, I had no clue on why I am always bad at doing presentations but these videos helped a lot to realize how I can improve my presentation skills in many ways. I will put everything into practice and try to improve in those areas I am bad at, therefore, I can do presentations perfectly in future.