Blog 2 Anhelina Muravska

 For today’s class, we had the second presentation project where we focused on the leaders or change makers from different eras. Generally, I liked listening to all the presentations since everyone managed to come up with something different and interesting. What is more, the managers performed exceptionally well introducing each group of people and concluding each presentation. In comparison to the first presentation, it is evident that all the groups managed to improve their skills of public speaking, structure, and creativity.

The first group discussed change makers of the 1700s. To my mind, this group succeeded in introducing historical personalities as well as in delivering useful background information concerning the era. What impressed me most was the way they used educational videos in their presentation. I have a feeling that some of the videos had been created by artificial intelligence and may be useful in helping people better understand the historical context. More specifically, the videos on life in the 1700s as well as biographies of the major personalities from that period, including James Madison, were quite fascinating. Additionally, personalities such as John Locke and Benjamin Franklin were brought up by members of the group. As a result of watching the videos, people found it easier to grasp what each personality meant.

In the other presentation, the members presented change makers from the 19th century. This presentation was one of the most interesting due to the innovative designs of the slides. Unlike the others who simply had a presentation that would flow in the normal manner, this presentation was creatively made through slides resembling a newspaper report. The idea of having slides as a newspaper was great since it reflected the theme of the topic in question. In addition, it made the presentation visually attractive and provided a good way of organizing the information to be presented. All the members gave a good speech and explained the contribution of their chosen change maker to society. Moreover, they used academic vocabulary but maintained the readability of the presentation.

The third group focused on the change makers of the 20th century. I must say that their attempt to grab the attention of the audience was pretty awesome. I liked their presentation for the simple fact that they made use of an eagle's voice clip both at the introduction and conclusion of their presentation. This may seem like a small detail, but it helped make their presentation lively. The way in which they presented the information was clear and straightforward making it easier to understand what they talked about in terms of topics.

Lastly, my group selected change makers from the decade of 2000s. In my personal opinion, our group was able to create an excellent presentation, which was well-structured and attractive to the viewers. All our slides contained similar layout that made our presentation more visually appealing and understandable. Some students from my group thought it would be good to include short videos about the change makers they have chosen for the presentation. I think that it was a good idea as it gave us an opportunity to convey some extra information to the viewer without spending much time on the topic. Finally, one other element of our presentation that should be discussed is citations. We decided to include sources for all the facts and pieces of information presented during the discussion. It allows everybody who might be interested to learn more about the topic to quickly obtain needed information.

Another factor that I observed throughout the presentations is the fact that there was a significant improvement from the first presentation we gave in class. Many of the students seemed to have more confidence while presenting information before the class. They maintained good eye contact while presenting and they communicated well by presenting the material clearly. Moreover, there was an increase in creativity during the presentation process as many groups utilized sound effects and videos among other ways to make their presentations more interesting.

The other aspect that I have learned from these presentations is how important team collaboration is. While every student talked about a separate change-maker, every group managed to make their presentation look well-planned and unified. It could be seen that there was a lot of effort put into making slides, picking out visuals and rehearsing presentations. Observing all these presentations made me realize that in order to make a good presentation, one has to work not only individually, but as a team too.

Another significant element from the presentation process was the involvement of the managers who played an essential role during this process. In my opinion, they managed to introduce all groups very well and draw conclusions on completion of each presentation. It is obvious that they contributed greatly to the formation of the context and background of each period and helped to prepare the audience to listen to particular issues. Moreover, it is clear that their contributions helped to conclude and facilitate transitions between groups. This allowed all presentations to go smoothly. Their leadership and preparation were crucial for success and made the process of studying effective and interesting for all participants of the process. Moreover, one has to be careful with the issue of organization. Properly organized and structured presentations are more likely to be remembered and easier to understand. These competencies I hope to use in the future.

Overall, I really enjoyed the second presentation session, and I feel that all groups did a wonderful job. In particular, I found it amazing how each group contributed its unique input towards the development of the project. The presentations also provided me with some useful lessons on communication. I understood that visuals could significantly contribute to making a presentation more interesting. Those teams that included creative designs and videos into their presentations made it more understandable and memorable. Some of them created amazing slides, others made videos on the topic, yet another one had created their sound effect, while still another had amazing public speaking skills. All of the presentations contributed to my understanding of various change makers of various time periods.