A500.8.3.RB_Good Presentation Design

The last thing I want to do is sound arrogant but presentations are my niche. Because of my extensive speech and rhetoric background I have learned how to articulate and present information in ways that captivate my audience. I shy away from the typical Powerpoint presentations and I venture out to find new platforms to deliver information. I have tendency to speak more during the presentation as opposed to reading from slides which I find most people, professional or not, do more often than they care to admit to. To show I am not a professional presenter but instead a normal person I will openly admit that I get terrible stage fright but I think that if you know what you are presenting and are passionate about it those fears ago away once the presentation starts. Once you begin your presentation you are no longer just delivering information you are also persuading people to a certain degree as well as entertaining them. I know I will get criticized by saying “entertaining” because not all presentations are warm and fuzzy but essentially you are providing some form of entertainment.  

People often say, “I get so nervous when I have to give a presentation,” and I always ask them why and their responses range from, “I don’t like talking in front of people” to “I don’t know why, I just do.” I think they know why and it usually stems from them being unprepared. Good presentations are not born overnight and take hours to critique not to mention you need to be passionate about what you are presenting and even if you are not passionate, pretend to be.

I look at presentations the same way I look at teaching (which is something I want to ultimately do in my career), giving a presentation takes 2 major components and puts them together. The first component is an art or the ability to articulate. If you cannot articulate your thoughts you will not be able to present properly, effective and efficiently. The presenter will find themselves stumbling over words, reading slides or completely losing their train of thought; my thoughts on fixing that problem is “practice makes perfect,” do your presentation in your bathroom mirror 1,000 times before you present in front of a crowd of people or even a small peer group. The second component is knowledge. This component is the information, data, statics or any information you know about in regards to your topic. If you are given a topic to present on and you know nothing about it you will not be able to give a good presentation unless you seek out additional information. Research is key to making sure you understand this component as well as life experiences (not everything you will present about is going to come from a book some will come from your person experiences as well). 

When you combine these two components together, art and knowledge, I feel that anyone is empowered enough to give a great presentation no matter who your audience is.

When you take into account the art and knowledge components  you also have to speak to the design or the aesthetics of the presentation. I have learned over the years that certain colors, verbiage and image placement plays a critical role in setting the mood and tone for a good presentation. Staying away from colors that are too bright or too dull and making sure that if text is included in the slide that it is not too long (wordy) or too small will allow the audience to connect to your presentation. Keeping your presentation error free and clean will help bond you with your audience (in my opinion). The presentation should not only represent the topic but it should also be a strong presentation of the presenter as well. Making sure to include valuable information and staying away from “fluff” will help the audience to stay focused on the purpose and help to eliminate your audience from deviating to other thoughts. You never want to lose your audience, keeping engagement is also reflected in how the presentation is constructed; I like to think of this as the flow.

All of these steps are important in creating a strong presentation as well as presenting it. Regardless of your audience you need to know who they are collectively and always put your best foot forward; do your homework. Never let nerves or other thoughts cloud your mind and stand behind your work. When presenting information you need to feel confident, it will be your key to success.

A500.7.3.RB_Quantitative Research Reflection

Data, data, data… those are the first words that come into my mind when I think of quantitative research.  Quantitative research is what you think of when you think back to what you learned in your high school science classes (although we didn’t necessarily call it by that term) essentially that is what we were conducing except now it has more steps and is more in depth.

You start with an idea, something you want to test. What you want to test can be something personal, for instance my action research project will be on a personal interest, but your topic can be something in the social significance spectrum, theoretical or ethical.  Whether you are testing to prove it wrong or right you are still testing your starting point which is the hypothesis and asking the question “how.” When I think of how the term “how” and how it will be incorporated in my research I ask myself these questions, “how will this affect my life”(this is relating to the purpose of my research) and “how will this make the research more clear” (addressing “how” from a structural standpoint). From there you begin conducting your research which is different than that of a qualitative research method; in this case you are aiming for more measurable data, I like to think of measurable data as something tangible. With qualitative research I don’t feel like I can touch the results but in quantitative research I feel as though I can reach out and touch it.

The process for conducting a proper quantitative research study is to begin with your research idea, conduct literature reviews, formulate your research problem, build you research questions, starting planning your research process, collect the data and analyze it, make sure to answer the questions you stated in the beginning, interpret your results, use comparison and conclude. If one follows these steps correctly they will end up with a proper and hopefully successful research study. When a researcher combines the purpose of the study, data and adds interpretation, the research study is bound to have a solid conclusion.

Research has to be methodical in the sense that it needs to have structure and flow. This is the part of the study where the research design is important.  Structure is something I know and have grown to love. The way I conduct my assignments now is a good representation of how much I like structure and flow. This need for structure also relates back to my A-type personality and perfectionist side (and I digress). Structure in quantitative research is very important because it ensures that the researcher uses the data or evidence obtained and is able to answer the initial questions stated in the beginning.

If all of these steps are combined properly the research should speak for itself. Although I do like this style of research I think at times it need to be incorporated with qualitative research to allow for the study to be more well rounded. I think back to my younger years and I remember my 6^th grade science and math teacher teaching us the difference between quantitative and qualitative and he described them as, “think quality when you think of qualitative and then quantity or amount when think of quantitative” and he was right.

A500.6.3.RB_Qualitative Research

There is no straight forward definition for qualitative research instead it is described as a combination of descriptions, methods and categories spanning from observations to interpretation as well as open-ended questions and then drawing conclusions. Qualitative research is descriptive and requires more time than a typical quantitative study. A quantitative research study consist of identifying a problem > making a hypothesis > obtaining data > analyzing data and then writing up the results. Qualitative research also requires the researcher to know when the data stops speaking to them (which in my opinion has to be the hardest aspect); this enables to researcher to collect the data and begin analyzing the information; Observation -> Writing -> Analysis > Conclusion (which ties back into the observation step).  Metaphorically speaking qualitative research can be looked at like a cup of tea, you as the person consuming the beverage you have to know when it is done steeping, it is ready to consume and are you satisfied with the results.

While watching the lecture on qualitative research I began to understand how complex this form of research is. Although the speaker said the minimum of time to for a qualitative research project is 3 – 4 months, I agree with the statement he said prior referring to the longer period of time in order to conduct these types of studies properly. Research cannot be rushed in my opinion and you have to have the ability to formulate a theory, state the hypothesis and allow time for the data to present itself; this can take an extensive amount of time and energy. We live in a world of instant gratification and expect things to be completed when we want them to be. When you are dealing with a topic and studying it via the qualitative research methods time has to become something you are patient with.

The speaker in the video talked about the emphasis on the whole and just a part. In any type of research I feel that you have to look at all of the parts of the puzzle to fully grasp the concept but if you fixate yourself to one area you will miss the bigger picture.  If you are missing a piece of the puzzle or you overlook something because you have focused in one area you are not being a well-rounded researcher. Taking into account I am a researcher I try to see things from the larger perspective which includes seeing the “whole” and not just the “part.” When I speak of whole I am referring to the theory, hypothesis, data and generalizations made about what I researching. I may attach the research project in a methodical way by means of taking each area in pieces but when I analyze everything I am doing so from a whole perspective and not just one specific area.

Regardless of the mode of research you wish to use when studying a topic, I feel that you have to properly identify why you are studying that topic and are you using the proper methods to accurately obtain your information. If you are looking for more concrete answers and want to follow a very structured way of thinking you should use the quantitative process but if you are willing to invest time and want a more descriptive and in depth process I would recommend the qualitative method.

A500.5.3.RB_Critical Thinking about Critical Thinking

I spoke earlier in my postings about the fact that one of my personal fallacies in my life is that I am a perfectionist but not only am I that I am also the type of person who every analyzes (everything). I have caught myself many times throughout this course over analyzing everything and then I find myself on top of that thinking too critically and I feel like I just cannot figure out how to step back and look at things from a broader perspective and not such a narrow one. I feel like I have been trained for so many years to do exactly what someone tells me to do and if it isn’t laid out clearly in directions my mind starts to analyze what it is and then I start to assume something that isn’t. I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing I just think it is a part of me and something I have learned about myself thus far. I think a part of this stems from the fact that I have always been surrounded by people who at first told me to “think outside of the box” but then gave me parameters to live within (this is coming from an educational standpoint my parents were both free spirited hippies who let me fall oh my face until high school and then they decided that I need more boundaries – it will worked out wonderfully in that sense).

When I started this course my thought process was to analyze and read between the lines but what I am learning is that I don’t have to do that; in critical thinking you have the freedom to see things from both a broad and narrow perspective. If you focus in on one thing or a thought/idea you really are not thinking about “it” as a whole but more so as one piece of the puzzle; critical thinking is much more than one part of the puzzle but of all of the pieces put together.  The circle method is a prime example, you have to be able to “go around the circle” and use all elements instead of picking a one or two; think of the circle as the whole and in order to complete the whole all parts have to be together.

I do not think there is one thing or one way to leave a lasting impression on anyone, I believe the person has to want that impression to stick with them. With every assignment and course I take I think each element of critical thinking will get branded into the back of my brain. I will be able to utilize those skills through the course of my career. I may not realize how much I am retaining right this minute because there is so much going on but years down the road I will find myself using the tools I learned in this course to better not only myself but also my career.

Personal Note: Sometimes I like to think that with every book I read, course I take or life experience I have, each one makes a positive effect on my life and the way I think about things and situations. I have to speak freely about a situation I am currently going through in my personal life which is a really hard long term relationship break up. I feel that these changes are going to positively affect the way I think. Right now I hate what I am feeling but I am learning to think about the situation differently and I will use the tools I am learning now to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. I know I over analyze and have for some time which is part of the reason we broke up but these types of “life events” truly alter a person’s mindset and usually for the good. My mother always said “learn from your mistakes.”