ULearn 2017: Spark MIT Presentations

During day 2 of the conference, the Spark MIT cohort presented our Inquiries as a group. Using an Ignite Talk format, we each prepared 20 slides to represent out findings, and were given a 20 second timeframe to speak to each slide.  We used Apple's Keynote to develop our presentations because it offers a presentation mode that allows for automatic timed presentation of each slide and provides a presentation mode for the presenter to see their speaking notes.

I was last to present, which I thought might be quite nerve wracking.  However, I found myself becoming extremely involved with the information being presented by the others that I was actually quite shocked when it because my turn to have a seat onstage to await my turn.

Overall, I believe that my presentation went rather well.  I was confident in my content and layout, especially after presenting at the Manaiakalani Hui and Board's Forum last term. I did have a little hiccup when I noticed our room monitor hold up our red 5 minutes left card in the back of the room.  I tried letting her know that I saw her, but she missed my non-verbal cues and began waving the card around to be sure I saw it.  I knew that if I verbally acknowledged her the flow of my presentation would be off due to the time constraint on our automatic presentation.  Unfortunately, making my eye contact with her more obvious caused a slight word jumble but I don't believe that it altered the flow of my presentation.

The audience was then asked if they had any questions for us, and the only question I received was in regards to the MultiTextual Database.  Once I let the participants know that the database is available to all NZ teachers, there were no more questions until the very end of the session.  I had one teacher approach with questions and curiosity about how I go about choosing texts for my students to use which has made me think about a possibly future blog post. 

I am so thankful for the opportunity to present at ULearn with this group of educators and for the Spark Foundation and Manaiakalani for supporting us in many ways during the past year.  Keep your eyes out for our final Spark MIT blog posts summarising our 2017 Inquiry Teacher experiences later this term.