Presentation Tips to Increase Engagement & Connection Ep 30

Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:05):
You're listening to the outclassed podcast exploring
Excellence in Teaching tech andleadership.

Mike Reading (00:10):
All right, well, so welcome back to the
OutClassed podcast. It's greatto have you listening in today.
And today I've got three veryspecial guests with me, we've
got Nicole Brown I've got AdrianFrancis, who's actually come up
on Zoom, we're recording this onZoom, and you might want to

(00:30):
check out some of the, the videofootage from today on YouTube.
But he's come in as me as well.
So you've obviously logged inwith my account, which is
awesome. And then we've got PaulHamilton who's not trying to
impersonate anybody. And he's onhe's on the call as well. So
rather than me introducing youguys, I thought I might just let
you introduce. So we're probablyshould go ladies first. So
Adrian over to you.

Adrian Francis (00:53):
Oh, cause that's rude. And that's now being
recorded and digital is forever.
We know that.

So Nicole over you have to introduce yourself. Tell
us a little bit about you. Andthen we'll go from there.

Nicole Brown (01:05):
No, I think I'm in for an interesting next hour. So
yeah, I'm Nicole. I am based inAuckland, New Zealand. Ex
primary teacher, turn UTBtrainer coming up on a year,
actually in a couple of months.
That's like flown by. And my jamis kind of in that science and
tech space when it comes toteaching. And yeah, so I loving

(01:27):
what I get to do over here, withour NZPLD schools, and more
recently, and that sort ofMicrosoft and Minecraft space as
well.

Excellent. You've got a bit of an accent that's
barely detectable.

I always forget, I always forget, this is how I
usually open presentations. Sothis is topical. Because I like
to call it Skiwi. It's kind oflike a good game to get people
guessing throughout thepresentation. Like where they
think I'm from. But yeah, it isa bit of an amalgamation because
I've been in New Zealand now aslong almost as long as I lived

(02:02):
in Scotland. So it's Yeah.
Skiwi.

Yeah, very cool.
Adrian, over to you.

Alright, so I'm Adrian. Thanks, Mike. Thanks
Nicole. Yeah, I'm based inAdelaide in South Australia.
I've been with UTB for fire,like officially five years. But
just for the record, Mike and Iwould drop a little bit of paper
about how it could work beforeanyone else was employed. And
now I'm hanging my head on that.
So that's cool. I'm an exteacher from. As I said, from

(02:32):
Adelaide, I used to teach mathsand drama. So I was a bit of a
combination. But when I kind ofjumped out of education straight
to this, I was kind of like a DPin school. So really looking at
curriculum and how that works inthe classroom. And always
interested in how tech can makelearning better not just be a
nice shiny tool on the side ofthe classroom or on the wall. So
that's kind of where I am beenhere for five years or so. Kind

(02:55):
of train in all three platforms.
Not as much apple now thatPaul's here, thankfully, a lot
of time in the Microsoft space,but I've been dabbling my foot
back into my foot by toe backinto the Google workspace area
was what we did last year in theAPAC region, and work with
currently doing for a corporateclient in Australia.

Yeah, awesome.
Very good. Thanks, Adrian. AndPaul. Thanks, Mike.

Paul Hamilton (03:19):
Yeah, I'm similar to both Adrian and Nicole. Got
that education background thatreally good that good grounding
those fundamentals of how peoplelearn and how kids learn. And I,
I don't think we're thatdifferent as adults, which is,
which is pretty good. Yeah, somy background primary teacher,
as well, but have done somesecondary work as well, which is

(03:40):
great. I have a real love ofimmersive tech, specially
augmented reality and virtualreality. Love all things Apple,
enjoy working with Apple teamsaround the world. And yeah,
really enjoying, I guess thatthat blend at the moment being
in Queensland. So I'm basicallyon the Sunshine Coast, really
enjoying that blend betweengetting into schools and the

(04:00):
face to face, which I love. Butalso making the most out of that
remote learning as well. Andwhat we can do with the tools,
the tools that we've got accessto and how we can really, I
guess, flip it a little bit andlook at the positives of what we
can do remotely that we mightnot be able to do face to face,
which is super exciting.

Yeah, awesome.
That's a great segue intotoday's topic. So today, I
thought we'd just unpack alittle bit of what we're seeing
in terms of trends of whatschools and businesses are
asking for. And quite often theywhen it comes to that technology
piece, there's a there's anelement of how do we just use
this tool to collaborate or tocommunicate, or to get out to
get our thoughts across. Butreally, we wanted to unpack and

(04:42):
this is something that we weregoing to discuss anyway. So for
a little bit of context, we'rerecording this on a Friday
afternoon, slash evening. We'vegot a couple of beverages out
we're just having a bit of funwith it. But it was something
that we were discussing as ateam anyway. And so it was like,
you know, what let's just recordthis, and we'll turn it into a
podcast. And so this will be rawand unfiltered. There are some

(05:04):
personalities in the room. Wemay agree we may disagree where
you get to find out. But really,we're just one of those things
we wanted to do personally wasjust talk about what we're
finding is working. And wethought we'd just share that
conversation with you thelistener. So, yeah, basically, I
wanted to just kick off with abit of a horror story, I think,

(05:24):
one of the main things aboutpresentation skills, because
quite often when you go to asession on presenting well, that
talk about a tool deck and howto do your slides and make it
pretty and, and all of that sortof thing, but how to communicate
and how to project your voice orhow to stop things from being
too monotone, like change youryour pitch. But really, I think

(05:45):
what sits underneath all of thatis whole concept around mindset.
And so I think if you talk tosomebody, they usually say that
they've got two fears in life,one is death, and one is
speaking in front of people. Andif you're a teacher, you're
probably overcome a little bitof the speaking in front of
people fear, but at the sametime, there's a, there's a whole

(06:06):
world of difference betweenrunning a class and actually
presenting in front of somebody,whether that's your own peers.
In fact, I think presenting infront of your own peers, if
you're at school, and you'retrying to lead change is harder
than if you're trying to speakto somebody else. But there's
definitely this mindset game andI can remember being in America,
and I took Mark on a trip Mark'sone of our other trainers at

(06:27):
Using Technology Better. Andwe're working in a school
district over there doing someGoogle training for them. And I
remember that was the first timemarket ever been to America. So
initially, I like I droveeverywhere, and just got him
used to sitting there andlooking at the way the traffic
flows being on the wrong side ofthe road, and so on. And then he
dropped me in the school and hadto go just a couple of blocks

(06:51):
from one school in the districtto the next school. And as, as I
was there at the school, I justsent him a quick message on
Google Hangouts and just said,Hey, Mark, just checking you out
there, okay, because it was thefirst time we've driven the car.
He's like, I'm alright, but Ihad an accident on the way. And
it was just as I was about tostart presenting, and I didn't
have time to follow up, I didn'thave time to ask him questions.

(07:12):
And I can just remember thatpresentation being like one of
the worst presentations I'veever presented, because in the
back of my mind, I'm thinkingabout him. insurances, like all
the things about being in aforeign country and how we're
going to figure this thing out.
And I'm also presenting to abrand new group of teachers, and

(07:33):
they fly me all the way fromAustralia, New Zealand, I was
living in New Zealand, and sofind me all the way from New
Zealand to present in it, and ifbombed, it was not what I would
consider a great presentation.
And the whole thing is you getinside your head. And then once
it starts to unravel, it's sohard to pick up those pieces and
put something back togetheragain, and to gain that
confidence back. And I thinkwe've all had those experiences
where in our head, we're justgoing, this is not working the

(07:57):
way I planned it. So I wanted toask you guys initially, when
you're in those situations, whatsome of the strategies you might
use, or the things he uses justto try and pull yourself back in
the moment. And so make it work.

I'll jump in, I'll jump in Mike. All right,
good. But it's true. I remembergoing up to a comedy festival up
in Noosa. And the comedian gotheckled really early on in in
the in the routine and she lostit, she she really didn't
recover from that, you couldjust say she was a little bit
off. And that does happen. Andonce it pops in your mind, one

(08:35):
of the things I normally do is,if I've got something in my
presentation where I try to theaudience and get them to reflect
or think that gives me a littlebit of time to kind of refocus a
little bit. So it might be onslide eight, where I say write
speak to the person next to youabout a time when it didn't go
well or kind of flip it a littlebit, which gives you time then

(08:56):
just to reset your mindset alittle bit. And everyone's still
engaged with what you are goingto do a little bit later. But it
just gives you that kind ofopportunity to reset.

I think for me, I am a pretty open book. So if
something is appropriate toshare, of course there are times
when it's not, but just beinglike raw and unfiltered and just
saying, Hey, guys, listen, thisis the reality of what's just
happened. Do you mind justgrabbing a cup of tea and give
me five minutes, just check inand we'll be right back is I

(09:31):
think you've got to kind ofremember that nobody in that
room wants inherently wants youto fail, that they are there to
learn something as much as youare there to do a job. So if you
can just be honest, I thinkhonesty is the best policy
applies in that scenario aswell.

That is so true.
Because you know, the one thingthat I didn't do when I was in
that session in America was Ididn't tell them what had
happened. So they had no clue Iwill be the professional going
out during my presentation, infact, I think I'd already
started, I just glanced at mymessages and saw the message
come through. And rather thanjust stopping and being honest,
and saying, Well, I've just senta message has kind of thrown me
for a six. I've tried to justhide it and keep running with

(10:12):
it. And it wasn't the rightapproach to take at all. Yeah,
which was, which is reallyinteresting.

Yeah, and I find sometimes, depending on like,
Paul said, you know, try toreset try to have something that
you can throw to. So it justgives you that breathing space,
but also gives the people on theother end breathing space as
well. I had a one where,obviously, the leadership team
had decided that they were goingto go down a certain pathway,
but they hadn't told anyone. Andso one of the leaders just said,

(10:42):
this is what we're going to bedoing, starting next week. And
so I'm staying there in front ofthem. And they got, you know, 85
angry teachers and on the onewent to be leading the workshop.
So I just throw it open. Sookay, what are the positives and
negatives of that, spend aminute chatting to the person
next to you, that was enough todefuse it. So then I could go on
and kind of do my bit that Ineeded to. Also, that kind of
thing wasn't my issue, it wasthe school issue. So I could

(11:04):
have taken it on myself, andtried to wrestle it through or
just let it kind of dissipate,and keep on rolling. So
sometimes you need to separateyourself a little bit between
what is your problem? And what'stheir problem and not kind of
biding their politics? Becauseoften there are politics
involved, and things like that,as well, especially for that
conversation. Definitely wasthose politics as well.

Yeah, that's a really good point, too. So
sometimes you've got tocommunicate things that you
don't necessarily believe in andor you've been asked to present
a message to staff, especiallyif it's your own staff. And then
you've got to sort of, you know,what they say is like, when
we're behind closed doors, wecan argue it out. But when we're
in front of people, we're we'reunited team, and it's just
finding that language and thatauthenticity, to to be able to

(11:46):
do that in a way that actuallymeans and lands. So in terms of
landing a message, what some ofthe techniques you guys use in
terms of your preparation, oryour thought process or
something like that, to, to sortof help figure out what is it
that I want to say, how am Igoing to craft these? How am I
going to let it flow? Is there aparticular process that you guys

(12:07):
go through, or a framework thatyou might use in terms of just
preparing that presentation,

I'll jump in before anyone else does before
the Scottish kiwi, I, I tend torehearse what I'm going to do,
it sounds stupid, or rehearse inmy head. So I'd ride my bike a
bit. So I'll jump on my bike, gofor a ride, and I'll rehearse
through a day or a module or aunit or something that I'm going
to do. So I know how it runs.
And then I'll often use parts ofother workshops I've run to link

(12:33):
them all together when I runanother one. So nothing's ever
really new, except for thatfirst time that you do it. And
then I try to I hate death byPowerPoint, or death by Google
slide deck or give by keynote,if you're an apple person, would
you ever want, I just don'tthink that's appropriate. So
what I tend to do is turn to useimages a lot. So then I can tell
a story. And I can link thingstogether and then put that put

(12:55):
use that story to link thelearning in there as well. So
that's kind of how I do it alsomeans that gives you flexibility
in there. If you're showing animage, then you can then just
kind of tell a story about theimage and how it relates to what
you're training on. And thenteach the skill associated with
it. Having words on a screen ishopeless, because people read
it, you read it, that's justpointless. Why would you do
that. But what I've have learnedis that because I do use a lot

(13:17):
of images in their presenternotes, write down what those
images are for, because oftenyou'll prepare them well in
advance and you get there and gobang, and there's a picture of a
person holding banana. Whilethey've got a donkey hanging on
with their right hand, you thinkthere's got to be a reason
behind this. I have no ideauntil you kind of make it up.
That's not very good when thathappened. So just kind of cover
yourself.

I like what you said about the story, Adrian.
And I know Mike, you're big onlike having that one thing that
people come back to that what'syour one thing? It's a lot to
think about when I'mconstructing whatever the
content as or whatever thepresentation is, write it like a
story. It has a beginning,middle and end that also has
like a moral, every story haslike the moral to the story. And

(14:02):
so that's your one thing thatyou want to come back to. And if
you put something in there andthink, actually, that's
irrelevant to the moral of thestory, then bin it, why is it
and they're actually addingvalue? Or is it just kind of
clouding the way for thecharacter to get through?
Because otherwise, it'sinformation overload. And people
check out when there's too muchwe know.

Yeah, and I'm gonna cut before Paul

need like a little buzzer.

Because at the end of the day, if you're doing
like you're doing face to face,you can tell that story, you can
see how the audience is goingand you can play the room a
little bit. But when you'redoing remote work, which a lot
of us are doing now, thoseextended stories are just
extending that screen time forpeople. So you need to kind of
kind of get a bit of a blendthere about how that works. I
think that's a really importantway as well to kind of keep that

(14:56):
in the back of your head whenyou're kind of presenting as
well. So Paul, We'll turn now.
Sorry.

Hey, thanks. I agree. Yeah, I was just gonna
say that you've got thatmessage, or you've got that
really big takeaway you want toget to at the end of the
narrative. And I think for me,what I try and do is help the
participants get there withoutyou, and try and have those
reflective questions, because Ithink connections made by
individuals is much morepowerful to say, Hey, this is
the big message of today. So ifthey can find that message,

(15:23):
through some questioning throughlittle stories, and getting them
to, I guess, self reflect aboutthe importance in their life
that kind of takes to self. Ithink that's really powerful
compared to someone that justsays, Here's a story. This is
the takeaway, and this is themessage.

Yeah, that's such a that's a tweetable. Right
there. I think, Paul, that wholeconnection piece. And I think
for me that one thing is reallyimportant, I always work out,
what's the one thing I want themto walk away knowing. And it
doesn't even have to be. Sowe're technology trainers. And I
did some training today, foronline for a large school in
Oakland. It was Microsoft Teams,and it was getting them started

(15:59):
in teams. And my one thing wasthat you may be feeling
overwhelmed. But this is a longprocess. Now, that's got nothing
to do with Microsoft Teams. It'sgot nothing to do with OneNote.
It's got nothing to do with thetechnology. But the one thing I
wanted the teachers to walk awayfrom at the end of the hour that
I had with them was that yes,I've just shown you the big
picture of all the things thatyou can do in teams and the way

(16:20):
that you could use it with yourstudents. And you're probably
feeling a little bit overwhelmedright now. But don't worry,
we're going to be on a journeywith you. And we're going to
show you what you need when youneed it. And we're going to help
you along the way. So eventhough I'm showing them some
tech stuff, and everyone wasthinking that the presentation
was about technology, thatreally was about just getting
the teachers to feel comfortableto just relax a little bit and

(16:42):
to embrace it. And the reasonfor that is that the outcome
that we want is not that theteachers know all these
wonderful things you can doinside Microsoft Teams, what we
want them to do is be relaxedand open to trying something
new. And so I went down thatstory pathway of taking care of
those fears, especially at thebeginning of the year with

(17:02):
overwhelm, and then all thetechnology stuff comes secondary
to it. So quite often themessage is not the message, it's
it's a message behind themessage that really makes a
difference.

Yeah, and Randy pouch who wrote the book, the
last lecture, so look it up onYouTube, talks about the head
fake, where you're deliveringsomething, but the head fake is
actually delivering somethingcompletely different. Like in
basketball, you don't watch yourwatch where the bodies go, you
don't watch where the head goes,because the head way, one way
the body will go the other way,if you follow that, you're not
going to go to the right spot.
So the head fake, for me is whatyou know, if I'm given something

(17:35):
to do with a sheet, and I wantthem to be more efficient, I'm
not going to tell them to bemore efficient in sheets, I'm
going to take them on a journeyso that when they get to the
end, they go, Oh, I was moreefficient. So they've learnt
that through that journey. Andthat means you got to think a
little bit about where you wantto take them. And also in the
back of your head, work out whatgoes wrong. If something does go
wrong, whichever you're going totake So choose your own
adventure, you can change it abit as you go through. But the

(17:57):
big picture is, what are theygoing to get away? At the end?
What are they going to talk tothe the partner about when they
get home?

Right? So Nicole, you guys do a lot of prep for
your sessions, like Adrian said,he goes over it in his mind.
Like, that's the last thing Iwould do personally improving my
personality that would thatwould crush me. Only interested
but like, what's your approachto it?

Um, I think for me, it's probably training
dependent, like I said, of beinglike the company, just under a
year. So depending on what thetool has as the extent of my
knowledge, and also confidenceand training. So if it's
something that I feel not soconfident with, then I am going

(18:41):
to do that I'm going to go awayand do the work. Because I
really think that, like you justemphasize we're trying to build
trust. And I think trust fromour audience or participants
comes from knowing your stuff.
So if I'm sitting in a room, andthe person in front of me knows
what they're going to say,without a slide deck or without
the resources that they can talkto fluidly and answer my

(19:02):
questions, then that trust therefor me, like I'm like, it
doesn't matter if you know, theyslip up or if there's a tech
issue. I know they've got it. Sodepending on what it is as the
as the level of prep for me, ifit's something that I know
really well, then my prep balllion, what is the application
for that customer? So as theresources that I can be putting

(19:27):
together that's going to supportthem, like you touched on Mike
that whole letting them know theexpectation that this is not a
one and done. This is a journeyand a partnership. And it's not
just a point in time. So knowingthat we're there to support them
beyond that, I think you canreally prepare for them. So
yeah, depends on the context forme, I think.

Yeah, and for me, I know Adrian and myself. We're
doing a lot of online at themoment, Mike and one of the
things I'm finding I'm puttingon A lot of thought into is just
how do I make a connection withthe audience that the
participants, and then how tomake it relevant a little bit
like Adrian said that death byKeynote or PowerPoint. So just
an example of that. So what Itried to do actually, today was

(20:14):
what we normally do at UTVs, weasked that question about
something about their liveswhere they would like to travel,
if they could, they couldactually travel on but what I
started to do now is actuallyasked everyone in the chat, what
they're working on at themoment, what's something that's
point, you know, and center whatthey're doing. So one of the
teachers today, Emily said thatshe's working with a class on

(20:38):
about me projects, getting toknow my grade six students. And
so I kind of made a note ofthat, I asked that in the chat.
And I had all these differentsub areas that people were
focused on with their teaching.
And then what I tried to dobecause it was iPad related
training, is I tried to comeback to Emily's idea and say,
Hey, in Keynote Did you know youcould take a photo, change the

(20:58):
opacity and draw over the top.
And so what I hope to do in thetech part of the session was to
make their voices heard, butthen come back to the tech and
what they were working on tomake it more relevant for them.
Now, I couldn't do that with all60 people. But I think knowing
that the facilitator islistening to them, and then

(21:20):
trying to adjust on the fly ofwhat they're doing. I think
that's an incredibly powerfulthing to do.

Yeah, and I don't think like, if you're sitting
here listening to this, andsaying, Well, this is great, I
don't go and present in otherschools or in other
organizations, you really needto listen to that part. Because
when you're speaking to your ownpeople, you've got to work even
harder that connection. And whathappens is that quite often,
people, like you're going as ateacher in that school. And

(21:47):
you'll just assume that youknow, everybody, and everybody
knows you, and you know, so youjust get up and you start this
show your, your, yourpresentation, or whatever you've
got prepared. But what you'remissing is the opportunity to
make a connection at a differentpoint. And so one of the things
that we always talk about isthat people don't do what they
say, but they do what theyvalue. And so if you're trying

(22:08):
to shift practice, one of thethings that you need to do is
you need to shift the value, notthe mind. So you can teach
somebody, all the things, but ifyou haven't shifted the value of
what they're doing, they're notgoing to do it. And so you need
to understand what their painpoints are. You need to
understand what they're tryingto achieve, and then marry what
you're doing to what they'retrying to do because and then

(22:28):
you've got that marrying avalue. So I think, Paul, what
you shared there about takingthat time to connect it to real
world is super important. And ifI was in a school, speaking to
that, my colleagues, I would betrying to understand
specifically what they wereworking on that weak or a
problem that they had to solvewhat was frustrating them or
holding them back, and then Iwould speak directly to that,

(22:48):
rather than, hey, I want to showyou a jam board. And here's all
the fun things we can do. Andthat's all getting there
introducing shapes or something.
Connecting that back to realworld is really important,
really important.

And exposing them, like you're saying, having that
example of a Jamboard, you canexpose someone to a new tool and
a non threatening way if it's anexample in context. So they're
going to be more open to tryingsomething new if they're like,
Oh, this is the outcome. Andthis is just the lens that I'm
looking at it through. Ratherthan, you know, going the other

(23:24):
way around, going with leadingwith the tool, I think can be
quite overwhelming for someonewho's like, I've never even
heard of that little uncertainpractice. So think or, or
demonstrations, any examples,any props kind of that we use
need to give the content context

and be applicable.
Right. So at the moment, youguys may be seeing it, we've got
some resources that are inshared drives. And at the
moment, American someone inAmerica right now is doing is
doing a speaking tour. Andthey're sharing out some of our
jam board resources, becausewe're getting all these Share.
Share requests come through onGoogle Drive. And I'm like

(24:04):
someone is showing them jamboard and these cool things that
they can do with elementaryschool kids, but they're not
showing them how to make a copyof the damn thing. And so we're
getting all these requestscoming in, open up my emails in
the morning is like sharerequest, share request share
request, because they think thatto access that gym will then
actually need full editingaccess to be able to do what

(24:24):
they need to do with it. Sowhoever it is in America, we
appreciate you sharing our stuffand given us a shout out which
is awesome, but to show him howto make a copy. And so they can
actually take it and use it intheir classroom. So sometimes
you miss that last little bitHey, which is pretty funny.
Yeah, so Nicola, I'm interestedin like part in terms of that

(24:46):
connection, like what somelittle tips or tricks that
you've got in terms of beingable to make that connection
with somebody and being able toYeah, draw me in, find some
information about them keeptheir eyes on you, so to speak.

I think a big one for me as someone who's like
early to airports, because itstresses me out if I'm not there
on time, and I apply that kindof mantra to my whole life. And
so for me, getting to training,early, be there early, sitting
in a staff room and having achat with people outside of a
professional context as a hugeone. And I think, you know, that

(25:27):
applies online as well. If youcan be there, you know, half an
hour before and you don't haveanother engagement on you can
sit on that chair, you will getsomeone who's going to jump in
15-20 minutes early, becausethey're also someone who doesn't
like to be late to the airport.
So that gives you just such anopportunity to get to know them
a wee bit. And like Paul wassaying, maybe, find out a little

(25:47):
bit more about what they'redoing in their classroom, or in
their organization, whatever itis, that you can draw on
throughout the presentation. Andpeople feed off that they go,
oh, yeah, like, I can make aconnection with that. I did that
in my classroom. And so you thenit's it compounds. So I think
that that whole getting to knowthe people in front of you

(26:07):
reading the room, one thatAdrian shared with me that I
think it's invaluable is usingnames, like can making
connections by actually callingpeople by their name, instead of
saying, Oh, you over therepointing or just pulling someone
out the chair, when you've got areference point, I think it
makes you a lot more relatable.

online as well, we're finding, even saying hello
to people's names as they comeinto a room, as tricky as it is
when they will come flooding inone spot. We got feedback this
week saying how it's so goodthat you actually welcomed us
in, I'm thinking, all you reallysaid was gray, Hey, guy in his
head, that kind of banter going,it's always good, because if
there's two or three peopleearly, they feel like they're
being included and not just kindof sitting there watching

(26:53):
something. And then when theother people join in, they know
that you're going to welcomeeveryone as well, it does get a
bit overwhelming when 85 peopleturn up at the same time. But
you can do that you can just dothat welcome. And same as nako.
I like getting somewhere justbeforehand, so I can make sure
everything works. So theprojector or plugin that can
connect into your Wi Fi, allthat kind of stuff that you take
for granted. When you're athome, you've got to make sure

(27:15):
that when you go to gosomewhere, and you're presenting
somewhere that you test it outbeforehand, it sounds really
obvious, but sometimes you justdon't do it. We had one back
years ago at another school thatI worked at that one of the
presenters was always notoriousfor running out running really
late, just she would turn upjust before we started, and we'd
be ready to roll this one day,we had all the parents in there,
she came in, we plugged in alaptop, went to turn on the

(27:37):
projectors and nothing wasworking, we're looking around.
And then I looked up andrealized all the projectors had
been removed, because they werebeing serviced and no one told
us. So we had to trouble sortthat in front of all the
parents. So if we had a half anhour, we probably want to come
up with a bit of a more elegantsolution. So just that kind of
stuff, and then it can calm youdown. So then you can work and
people can relate people have abit of a joke and chat with

(27:57):
people before they get there.
Rather than being tense about.
Here's my PowerPoint gonna work?
Is my laptop gonna fire up? CanI connect to Wi Fi?

Yeah, I think that's really important. Again,
if you're a teacher in your ownschool, be there early, make
those connections. And all theselittle things make a big
difference in your own in yourown house. Because if anything,
you got to do these, like 10times better than when you're in
a guest in someone else'sschool. Right. But what's some
of the things you use? I know,Adrian, and you've worked and

(28:24):
workshops and different ideas interms of that engagement and
music lists and all sorts ofthings like that. unpack some of
your thinking around?

Yeah, Adrian, speaking of the music, I'm not a
big music person myself, but Ithink we talked about it in the
introduction, the ability orwhat does remote have maybe that
face to face doesn't and I thinkthe names is a really big thing,
being able to quickly see who'ssaying what making their
thinking visible and attaching aname to it. And actually calling

(28:54):
that out is so much better. Iused to love going into prep in
grade one classes at the startof the year when I was in a
school because I don't have nametags on. And so you could
actually call out little bob andFrank and Jill and Emily. And it
made such a difference theirlittle faces kind of lit up when
you use use their name. So Ithink when we look at face to
face, and what it does give youis that quick snapshot of

(29:17):
everyone that's coming into theroom. Adrian was like, like play
school the other day, like inthe magic mirrors. He was just
going off with all these names,and it was just amazing. And
then being able to refer back sothen being able to kind of
quickly scroll through the chatand say, All right, Emily, you
did talk about creating graphsand how you were struggling with

(29:37):
that and then relating it backto that person's name, I think
is super important. The otherthing I did I try and do to Mike
is allow somewhere in thepresentation for everyone to
share something that theyalready know. So that mindset of
they're not coming in as a blankcanvas. They're actually coming
in as educators with a lot ofworth and so giving that

(30:00):
opportunity to say share one tipwith keynote, share one tip with
PowerPoint that you love, andyou couldn't do without, it kind
of creates that atmosphere thatwe're all learning together, and
that other people in the chat,you know, this has been
successful when other people inthe chat start to answer the
other participants questions.
And you've created that cultureof that I don't think that

(30:20):
happens organically. So I thinkthat mindset of we're all
learners here, let's supporteach other in the chat can
really create a beautifulconnection with the whole group.

So circling back to that, that music piece, so
what I normally do as I givethem a form, like a Google form,
or a Microsoft form to fill out,and that's my headache, is that
I want them to learn how to usea form. So I'll get them to use
one beforehand and show you howyou can use it, they then pick
the music, and then I play thatback. And then I often will set
a task to be the length of asong. So I look down on my list

(30:54):
and go well that that song goesfor three minutes. 45. So I was
like This task can take threeminutes 45 I don't have to worry
about the time, that song takescare of it. And then it kind of
gets me involved as well. Acouple of hints is I did once
where someone railroaded theform and chose country music and
everyone thought that was quiteinappropriate. But most people
were singing along to thecountry songs because they knew

(31:15):
them, which is just bizarre. ButI've also put down a bit of a
joke Bulgarian folk music, and Iwas in school last year, and
they all chose it. And it'slike, sorry, for the Bulgarians
were singing here. Probably notthe best to have as background
music for a workshop. So nowI've pulled that off. And the
most popular one, if you'reworried is, is the 80s is the at
the moment because that's thedemographic of the teachers and

(31:37):
it's normally around whenthey're between about 14 and
about 18. That's that that's thetimeframe they pick for their
songs, because it links back toa really good time in their
life. So it's nice to link itback to that as well.

So just unpack that, Adrian, what you do is you
ask you put them in a form andsay what is like name a bit like
you give them a list of songs tochoose from, or you just give
them, give them an era.

Give them an era. So it is 70s-80s-90s,
whatever, and they pick it andthen I can show the graph coming
in and show them how the data iscoming in, how we can pull it
apart. And then we can if we'redoing spreadsheets are linked to
a sheet, we can do stuff withaverages, all that kind of
rubbish as well. So and thenI'll link it back to the
classroom if they're going touse this stuff in the classroom
as well.

Very, very clever.
That's great. I also heard arumor some I think, Adrian or
maybe it was Paul, were partypoppers start to make a bit of
an appearance during a sessionwhat happens?

I give out party poppers. And then one of my
slides is just rules engagement.
And so basically, if you have anidea that you haven't thought of
before, then you can pull theparty popper, if there's
something you can think aboutthat you apply to your
classroom, that'd be reallygood, you can use the party
popper. If you're thinking aboutlunch, you can pull the party
popper. And if you're justreally bored, you can use it as
well. So that's the rules ofengagement. So often, when you

(32:53):
hit an aha moment, which theyhave seen something new for the
first time, then they pull theparty popper, and it's just
great hearing them go off aroundthe room, as well. So it's quite
a good kind of way of doing it.
Just go buy them from cheapestchips, and just where you go,
just hand them out. It's reallyexciting. It's fun.

What do you do? If you have someone at the end of
your session? Who hasn't pulledthe string yet on the party
popper? Is that like a majorletdown? Or what do you do?

It's weird, because some people want to
because they don't want to tryto noise or a mess and other
people just just just don't doit. So don't buy like if you're
going to do a workshop for 100people. And you've got three or
four workshops during the week.
Don't buy 300 party poppers onlybuy a lot for the first one
because some people will handthem back and you can reuse
them.

me Yeah. Expert Tip, right. They're awesome in
terms of presentation skills,like have you had Do you guys
have find you a bit of a balancebetween PowerPoint content,
Keynote content, or hands onlike for me, like today's
session, I had an hour I hadfour slides. To have them was

(33:56):
just one of them was introducingme. One was showing how teams
was the central hub ofeverything. And two, and then I
had another two that showed apresentation that I couldn't
show because I was actuallypresenting and you can present
your presentation. So I wantedto show on what it was like
presenting inside teams wherethe buttons were, that
everything else was completelyhands on and live guided to like

(34:17):
where do you guys bounce interms of live demo versus slide
decks and assets and resourcesand things like that.

I like to be very upfront at the beginning of any
presentation I do that. One forthe people who are like wanting
to furiously take notes becausethey want to learn the slides
will be available after thepresentation. So you don't need
to write everything down. Justtry and be present. But also
just as like use them yeah moreas a resource more of like a

(34:48):
supporting backup to what I'mdoing. Like if you can get
people I mean it's obviouslydifficult if you're remote
trying to get them active likephysically. But if you're
encouraged that taking littlebreaks But if you're in person,
for me, it's really around,getting them end to those
interactive sort of activitieswhere they're creating something

(35:10):
together where they're movingaround, because that's the real
golden time where you can floataround and have those deeper,
contextual conversations. But wewere at a teacher holiday last
week, and we're really lucky tohave two trainers. And we
really, one got to knoweverybody a little bit better.
So we try, I usually try andkick off with something like

(35:32):
that near the beginning, andthrow them into something right
away, because it usually throwsthem off, they think they're
going to sit there and listenfor a while. But if you're like,
nope, here we go, we're gonnaget into something, they're a
lot more alert and engaged. Butto Yeah, give us good context,
again, for the rest of thesession. And let us kind of
divert to what was going to beuseful for them and their skill,

(35:55):
and actually just go with that.
So I think a lot of it, likewhen I started, I plan out the
lovely slide deck to be superorganized, and then not even
look at the majority of them,because I found something that I
had a really good idea for, orthey went on a bit of
attendance. And so that was moreauthentic to what they were
actually trying to achieveoutcome wise, during that, you

(36:16):
know, diverting off the beatenpath. So for me now, more that I
have more experience is minimalpresenting and more kind of
hands on. And just using that asa sort of backup, I guess.

Yeah, and I, I agree, Nicole, I think that
learning by doing because we dotech training, the learning by
doing is super important. Andnot just watching, I think more
and more with Well, I'mcertainly doing workshop kind of
based training, where you'reworking with a group of
teachers, maybe over four orfive afternoons. And so it
becomes then more project based.
And so what we try and do withthe project based workshops is

(36:57):
run them through a fun littlething. Let's say I'm, I'm
creating a Jenga simulation inAR. And so we'll do it together,
we'll create the same project.
But then we stop at the end ofit, we reflect and make the
connections with right, we'velooked at physics, we've looked

(37:17):
at moving 3d objects. Now wheredoes that suit your current
curriculum and get them to jointhe dots, I think that's really
powerful is they come along onthe journey with you, they build
something together. And it mightbe a little bit different, but
it's quite similar that way, youknow, they've got all of the
skills, but then you give themthat time to make the
connections and say, I could usethat with this. And I could do

(37:39):
that with this. I think that'sreally important too.

I think just touch on that before I'm jumping in
front of you, Adrian, I know asas a teacher setting in those
sessions, if I know I'm going tobe on a presentation or training
all day, I'm thinking, when do Iget time to do my planning, when
do I get time to actually beready for the students that are
going to be in front of metomorrow morning. So if I can be

(38:04):
doing that, and the sessionguided by an expert facilitator,
who knows, you know, all theseamazing options for what it
could do in my classroom, and Iget time to build that up during
the session. And I'm just goingto be completely focused.

That kind of has changed what I was about to say
Nicole. But anyway, um, we inthe last lot of online training
we did for a school, which is afour days PD, we ended up having
a rotation of workshops. But inevery workshop, we had a sandpit
time where they could play anddevelop something they've just
seen, so they can take it intothe classroom the very next day.
And that works really well. Sothey might see something in

(38:40):
OneNote, or informs or whateverthey want to do. And then
they've got time, which is 45minutes, or whatever, to
actually develop it further. Sothey've got a resource that they
can take away with them, which Ifind really, really helpful. In
terms of slide deck size, theslide deck for me, all it does
is help me think about my trainof thought and the way in which
I want to take that learningjourney to go. And often do,

(39:01):
I've got a really good one thatI use for cyber teams, and are
going to get to about the thirdslide on that. I don't even go
to the risk, because I'll justgo into a demo because I find
that having a hands on demo isreally, really worthwhile.
Giving them a sheet if I'm doingspreadsheets, giving them a
sheet that's like yours, so theycan follow through and do
exactly the same thing. So youcan have everything in it, that
you were gone, but blank spacesfor them to fill out. So they

(39:24):
work along with you. Somethinglike teams, see if you can get
in a tenant and throw them intoa team at the same time so they
can play in that space. So it'sall hands on. It's all that
experiential learning ratherthan listening to me talk
because they can grab anythingof YouTube and watch Infineon
they can speed you up, they canstop you. But the beauty of
leading learn is that you cantailor what you're doing to the

(39:45):
needs of the people there. Butalso value add so they can walk
away with something I can usestraightaway. Not something that
I have to read the note in sixmonths later, which won't make
any sense at all.

It's so so important. Hey, and that's, I
think one of my other big tipsis whatever content You think
you're going to get through,probably have it and you
probably still got too much. Andyou guys know what it's like,
because we sit down with whoeveris organizing the professional
development session, they wantyou to cover this and this and
this and this and this. And wewant to like they got to know

(40:15):
all this stuff. But if you go inthere with like, that slide deck
has got 57 slides in it. Andyou're rushing and somebody
asked you a question, you'relike, Oh, that's a really good
question. But I'm not going toget to a slide deck, and I'm not
going to cover that stuff. Sohaving you think that I'm going
to run out of time and never runout of time d. So just Yeah,
giving that space for thoughtand creativity discussion. So

(40:38):
the value is never in thecontent, the value is in the
application of the content. So Icould walk away hearing 10
things, and not do anything withit. Or I could hear one thing
and do something with it. Andthat's much more valuable in my
books. So that space is, as Isaid, all the time. And it's
what used to drive me absolutelyinsane when I was a teacher

(41:00):
means you'd have these peoplecome in, and they just run their
spreadsheet, or they'd run thisslide deck, regardless of what
you were doing, they weren'table to read the room. And
they'd see that they losteveryone in the first 15
minutes, because it wascompletely irrelevant. Well, I
went too fast or too slow orwhatever. But on they go,
because that's the prep thatthey've done. And so we work
very hard at being agile inthat. And we're always got stuff

(41:22):
left over at the end of thesession, like oh, man, I wish I
hadn't got to that.

I'm sure you guys one of the things, they
might as well as that whenyou're doing face to face
training, people will stay thereand stay with you. And often
they'll have laptops open. Andthey might be doing something
completely different because youbought them and they know
they're not going to getanything out of it. But you
don't know. So you just keep ongoing. And it's great. And you
come away feeling warm andfuzzy. In the online
environment, they'll just leave.
Because I've got no idea. Soyou'll just look up and see all

(41:49):
these dots at the end of thesession, you say goodbye to
everyone. And you know, theyhaven't been watching you for
the last hour. But they justhaven't turned they haven't
designed out. So you've got tobe wary of that. As well as that
people are generally quitepolite. And now they'll just
kind of sit there and just nodand smile or buy shoes in the
background.

Yeah. So you just got to keep asking questions in
chat and just asking how's thislanding for you and, and just
checking in and how they'regoing right, and then be ready
to pivot if you need to. I thinkone of the things I saw
yesterday, Adrian, Samantha, ontraining for a large corporate
client in Australia was justconstantly checking in seeing
where they're at asking forresponses. Give me an emoji of

(42:30):
how you're feeling right now.
And all that does, even ifthey're not necessarily the
brakes, their concentrationbecause like hang on a second,
they've stopped talking what'sgoing on. And it just breaks and
back. And I thought that was areally good strategy that you're
using.

It's always good to edit, ask your content, like
those kind of contentiousquestions like, do you like
conflicts conversation view, ornon conversation view in

a grid or list person?

Using all that comes up with and we've just
I've never really like it's beenhilarious. Fortunately, I it's
worth it's worth trying toseeing goes like, just kinda
engages them I think.

Oh, sorry, Nicole, that I was just gonna
say feedback is just that thatcrucial element of Teaching
isn't it. So being able toactually get that feedback is
probably one of the mostimportant things to do.

And get your office used to quiet in
teaching, we need to get ourfeedback at the end of the year
when we do our reflection on ourteaching. And sometimes by that
it's way too late. Yeah, likecounting back in the summer to
the kids three weeks after Ifinish it the maintenance. But
at least online now we can getinstant feedback. So that means

(43:41):
we can build on what we'redoing. We can change what we're
doing if you need to, and takeit on as a learning experience.
The next time we present you'vegot in the back your head,
there's a whole lot of answersor answers to questions that
people are asking. So it makesyou a better presenter, because
you've got the instantaneousfeedback now, which I think is
really good.

Yeah, I think that feedback to you the other
day, Adrian, I think sorry,Nicole. Because there's too many
men in the room, you go Nicole.

No, I was just gonna say, if you are listening
to this going find the timestampfor this part of the
conversation because one thingwhen you were talking about that
feedback, Adrian, you're likelighting up describing the
conversations you were having inthe chat. And I think that is so
important to come back tobecause having those
interactions as well gives youenergy as a presenter. And I

(44:35):
think when you're on thoseremote calls, and sales
training, you've done 10 timesalready, it can get quite
monotonous. So if you've got abit of interaction, a little bit
of banter going on the chair,people using ridiculous emojis
for silly stories. It justbrings a little bit of you know,
comedy to it. And I think thatadds so much in terms of energy,

(44:57):
especially if like you'representing an Another timezone
and it's 11pm, or the lightpole, you're up at 4am to do
something, you know, you needthat buy in. So I think anyway,
you can foster that as is reallypositive.

And I was just gonna say absolutely turn a car
is going to say that formativefeedback, which we know as
teachers or teachers is moreimportant that that's somebody
that the end and everyone saysit was awesome and that I was
supporting Adrian the other day.
And it came up where eitherAdrian or myself say this, is
the screen big enough for youguys that are following on is
there? Do we need to zoom in atall? And I? And someone said,

(45:35):
Yes, zoom in a little bit forus, we can see what you're doing
as well. And I just thought,what if that didn't happen until
right at the end, and I couldn'tsee a thing and, and so just
adjusting as a trainer, gettingthose little tips from everyone
to make sure that you know,we're making sure it's about
them. And it's not about us, weknow the content that they

(45:56):
don't. It's just superimportant. And I when I sitting
there, Adrian listening to that,and we zoomed in and the method
yep, that's great. Let's keepgoing down. I thought I've never
heard that before. In an onlinepresentation when I'm sitting in
it. I've never heard someoneask, is that screen? Okay, do I
need to zoom in a little bitmore? And I just thought that's
a great, great tip goingforward. Yeah, that's nothing.

Yeah. Yeah, just speaking into avoid. I think
here's a little pro tip, Ithink, oh, I don't know if we
talked about this. Since westarted recording I was saying
before, but I think everypresentation is almost like a
sales call. I think it was worthtalking about that before we hit
went live on this, but becauseat the end of the day, we're
trying to ask people to dothings, right. And so if you can

(46:44):
get a little micro commitment,then you're able to get a bigger
commitment down the track. Sothere's actually a little bit of
psychology in that, so that ifyou ask somebody to respond or
participate, even just in asmall way, then you'll be able
to ask them for a bigger asklater on. And so that's one of
the reasons why whenever Istart, I'm like, give me an

(47:05):
emoji of how you're feeling orgive me a thumbs up that you can
hear me, okay? Because someonewill give you a thumbs up, but
they might not type their nameand where they are from, or you
know what they're feeling at themoment. But if I can get an
emoji out of them first, then Iknow I can get a name out of
them second, and then I can geta fear out of them third, and
then I can get an action pointfor so we start with small
steps, and then you work yourway forward. And so even if

(47:27):
you're, again, I want to bringthis back, because I know a lot
of people who are listeningaren't necessarily out
presenting and you're, you're inthe trenches with your own
people, finding just thoselittle get them to raise their
hand or to say nod or to sayyes, or, or something is super
important. So even if you'rethere and you say, Have you had

(47:48):
a good day, and everyone goes,they won't really say anything,
you just repeat yourself. Andbecause what you want to do is
you want them to say yes, or youwant them to say no, because
once you get them to respondonce, then you can get them to
respond again. And again, at theend of the day, we want them to
do something with our training,right? Not just sit there and
waste 40 minutes. And listen, wewant them to take action of some
sort. So if you can get them totake a small action, then you

(48:10):
can always get a bigger actionlater on.

We'll leave him with I always had the challenge
of three or three things areafter today, we covered 19
things we're doing. So what arethree things you're going to do
before the end of the semester.
So don't knock yourself out andsay I'm gonna do 19 things
before the next weeks. Like it'slike your New Year's
resolutions, you know, theybring all the fitness gear out
into the, into the hole foreveryone to use. And three days
into the new year, they move itall back in again, because no

(48:35):
way I actually use it. So don't,don't commit to a million
things, just pick one thing thatyou can use. And then that gives
you confidence that you mightcome back and grab something
second. But the teat teachersare pushed for time that they've
got a whole lot of other thingson the dance book. So don't say,
I want you to do 19 thingsbefore next Tuesday. Just get
one one that you might do. Andthat might just be archiving
your email, boom, that's enoughto get yourself going. So those

(48:57):
kinds of things, really simplethings.

Awesome. What you one thing? All right, let's,
let's switch gears again. Andlet's talk about tools and how
we get people collaborating andinteracting in the session. So
they're not they're buyingshoes, or they're not they're
scrolling Facebook or somethinglike that. I know, Paul, you've
done a fair bit of work intrying to get people together
and get their thoughts out onpaper and so on or digital

(49:23):
paper. Like what's your go totool direction?

Yeah, so mine Mike is. So I work a lot in the
Apple space. And so what thatoften entails is not so much
Apple products, but it could bea combination of different apps
that people are using on anApple device. So I love Padlet
Padlets, one of my favoritesbecause what I can do is I've

(49:48):
got a paid account, but everyonethat joins my session doesn't
need one. So they can upload bigvideo files or interesting VR
files or AR files. Because forme One of the things I try and
do, especially the full dayworkshops, is have a showcase or
a celebration party at the end,where I can pull up people's

(50:09):
projects, their littledocumentaries or whatever
they've created during the day.
And we want to make sure thatthat's visible, we want to make
sure that their work is visible,so that we can call out skills
that they've used, that wedidn't show, it could be calling
out some soft skills that musthave happened for that to occur.
And the biggest thing is, theycan also take that away, then.
So you've got that resource ofif anyone's seen Padlet. It's

(50:31):
almost like a whiteboard. It'sjust like Microsoft or jam
board. But I can upload a lot ofdifferent file types. So what I
can do is I can provide a lot ofresources, maybe YouTube clips,
digital resources. But I'vealso, and this is what I try and
do, I create a column if I knowwho's going to be in the
session. So I might actuallycreate a 50 columns with each

(50:53):
person's name on it, so thatthey've got this space, to write
down questions to upload theirstuff. And they really know
that, hey, when I show this atthe end, there's also a little
bit of guilt, a little bit ofpressure, that when I go past
your column, you've got someawesome stuff that you've
actually created. And we don'thave a blank one sitting there.

(51:13):
So what I found is they don't doit, because it's fear of
embarrassment, but they actuallylove sharing, they love
commenting on each other's work,just like we like to be seen in
a in a workshop. So I lovePadlet Mike, just because it
allows me to set up putting allmy resources, but then give each
person a place to make theirlearning visible.

Right, can I share my screen, Michael? Okay,
because I'm Mike as well. Sobecause you're awesome, Michael.
So Michael, because I'm a mustsay this is this is a copy from
from from Paul, because Paul touse Padlet. In your stuff that
you're doing Arthur year, whynot? Why should I. But these are
my Microsoft resources builtout, I've got a standard Padlet
that's got everything in it.
It's got all the videos thatwe've made on how to use stuff,

(52:02):
you can see everything stored inhere. For the people who
listened to this on the podcast,just imagine this is the most
amazing thing seen your entirelife. This is a resource that
they can have afterwards. So Ikind of built up a standard
deck. And I just duplicate andthrow everyone's names in it
when we work. So that was a hintfrom Paul works really, really
well. Fun for engaging. But alsoit means that if they forget how

(52:23):
to sort of do unlock software,they can come back and watch it
later, they'd have to learneverything. So it's really good.
And they could fund to buildout. And they're really handy.
And I work on every device whichis good on a PC or on a laptop.
While we're talking aboutfavorite tools. So sorry,
they're all I've got you off,I'm just starting to use a thing
called presenter fi, which is anapp inside the Apple world. And

(52:44):
it means I can draw pictures onscreen like put arrows I can
drop text in just means that ifI'm drawing attention to
something, I don't have to blowmy mouse cursor up so big that
it becomes really stupid on thescreen. And I can follow where
I'm going. There's a couple offreebies in the Microsoft area
that has a yellow.or, a blue dotthat will follow around where

(53:06):
you are, which is really goodfor drawing people's attention
to things. If you're doing ademonstration online or in a
like like spreadsheet for me,for example, I blow my cursor up
too big. Sometimes it doesn'tknow where that cursor is when
you're clicking on things, so itdoesn't quite work well. But if
you've got that dot floatingaround, it gets rid of that
problem as well. The other thingI've just started to do, like

(53:26):
probably in about a week or twoago, is just to use another tool
as well. But before I get tothat second tool, just a couple
things, if you're presentingonline, like clear desk, make
sure you got plenty of room towork in, have your drinks and
something close by get rid ofall your abs on your window,
close them all down, putyourself on Do Not Disturb if
you've got a Mac or a PC, whenyou plug into a projector it

(53:47):
knows that you are projectingpresenting so automatically put
you on Do Not Disturb. But whenyou're doing a video call, it
doesn't do that. So go up turnoff to turn on Do Not Disturb.
So nothing pops in. So it'sembarrassing when your mom asked
you to bring around yourwashing, those kinds of things
that have popped up on thescreen. But the last thing I've
just started using is a thingcalled stream deck by avato. And

(54:07):
Valentine make this little thingcalled stream deck that enables
you to pre program all the keysit sounds a bit nerdy. But in
those key G can pre grantprogram things like responses,
links to websites, open updifferent pages. So I've got a
whole lot of replies toquestions that we get standard
standardly asked in GoogleSheets workshop, all stored.

(54:28):
I've got all my links to myresources there. I've got links
to share documents that we havelinks to the company's websites,
all those kind of things. Soinstead of having to type in I
just hit a button it justpopulates straightaway
automatically, which means myattention is actually at the
people on screen, not lookingdown at my keyboard. Really good
as well worth the not that Isell anything for him if they

(54:49):
want to sponsor me. It'd begreat. But I for me, it's been
probably the best thing I'vedone in terms of being able to
manage the way in which thingswork really, really handy.

What was that called? Again? Adrian, the one
way you are drawing on yourscreen again?

That's called that is called presenter fi.
Presenter, right? Yep. Sounfortunately, yeah, it's
really, really good works reallywell.

Yeah, I thought it was black magic when I was
watching you do it the otherday.

Mine are a bit, well, one, I just have one. I
want to share that as a basicone. But before that age, and
you just said something thatmade me think about eye contact,
I can't remember what you saidnow got distracted with Paul's
question about what the name ofit was and writing it down. But
just a little thing that someonemade me think about the other

(55:39):
day with the whole, you know,you're in person, you're in
front of people, you're makingeye contact with them to build
that engagement. Are you doingthat when you're on a video
call? Are you looking? Are youeye level with your webcam?
looking directly at the camera,building that connection? Where
you think I'm looking at you? Oram I watching someone on a tile?
Or watching the chat? Or am Iwatching a second screen. And

(56:01):
that's fine. If you'vecommunicated you know, I'm doing
a demo on this screen. I've gotyou guys here. So if you think
I'm looking away, not payingattention, just know that that's
what I'm up to. So I thinkthat's just a side note. But my
tool that I really love forbuilding collaboration is
Flipgrid. And because it is sucha universal tool, it's you know,

(56:22):
web based, doesn't matter whatdevice people are using. So it's
that video response tool, if youhaven't used it, where you can
set a sort of media descriptionof it. And then people respond
with a video. And I think peopleare pretty used to that now,
thanks to COVID. I like to getteachers using it as well,
because I think it's somethingthat's again, applicable right

(56:44):
away, can take into a classroomand use it with their kids. And
I introduce the students tostudents as I closed YouTube,
and then they get to think Ah,yeah, like, come on YouTube.
This is awesome. It's got BeltreImmersive Reader. So you've got
translating options on there,you've got read aloud, you've
got all that accessibilityimprovement. And it's just fun.

(57:06):
Like you can use green screeningand effect and, like we've used
it internally to do some funkind of stuff within our team.
So it is something that's funfor many an audience. And I
think it's a really good one toget people hands on with so you
can kind of scaffold theirlearning and how to use it. And
then they feel more confident totry that. Because it can be

(57:29):
something that people go oh, no,I don't know about that. That
looks a bit complicated. But,you know, once you expose them
to it, they go, Ah, this iseasy. This is great. I love the
sound of my own voice Lecky,more or less in the classroom.
So it's quite a fun one.

And whether it's face to face, whether it's face
to face or online. The otherthing or another great tip is
just to have a QR code there aswell, just for that easy access
that you can put links in thechat. And they can click on it
if they're on one device. But Iknow that when I'm working in an
iPad school, I can put up a QRcode there just holding up the
camera there straight intoPadlet. No logins, no issues

(58:08):
finding it. And so we can focuson the learning then I think so
those QR codes in your slidedeck, I think are a really good
tip as well.

And thought of that, that's that's actually
cool. That's yeah. All right,there are a couple of things
while we're talking aboutpresenting and stuff. For for me
at home, I run I've got twoscreens here, two monitors, so I
can actually split my stuff upso I can see what's going on.
But I always run another device,at least one other device, which

(58:38):
shows me what the participantssee. Because unless you're using
certain software, or certainpresentation stuff, you don't
see what they're seeing. So youcan be presenting away and they
are seeing a black screen,they're too polite to say
anything. So I always have adevice that logs in over there.
And if we're using a separatekind of chat, I'll have another
one as well. So I'll have fourscreens up to force things that
I'm looking at. And I alwaysexplain it, like Nicole said, so

(58:59):
that they don't think I'm beingrude. But it just means I can
keep track of what's going on.
We often sometimes we try topresent with two trainers, which
means that the experience at theother end is far better for the
person because they've gotsomeone answering the questions
in the background and presentingwith someone else you can bounce
off of them and you get thisbanter going back and forth. So
it means that your energy levelsare a lot better for a longer
period of time. And the otherthing I've done which I've done

(59:20):
as a demo, which tends to getpeople really engaged is just
using turning on live captions.
So if you're doing ademonstration same PowerPoint or
in Google slides we can turn onthe little boys live captions
also inside teams as well sothey can see the live captions
coming in that can be helpfulfor people in terms of an
accessibility thing as well. Butmy little kind of caveat on that

(59:43):
is just be really carefulbecause I was talking about once
how well this works with withlarge decks and sometimes it
doesn't quite get the vowelsright. So instead of large, you
go with me, and you know whatyou did? When you do those live
captions, that word will stay inthe middle of the screen no

(01:00:05):
matter how much you talk orwhatever, just sit there and I
had a great demo. Camera it wasthis week, we did it with
PowerPoint, I know what we didit with. And I talked about
don't do this in New Zealand,because if someone says I've
been out painting my deck, it'snot going to come up that well.
Very confusing. And it convertedit on the fly. And I'm just at
the guy and it was fantastic.
Beautiful thing. So just beaware that sometimes technology

(01:00:25):
will let you down at mostappropriate place.

Mike Reading (01:00:32):
That's classic.
Well, it's interesting cuz yousay you got a new other tech
King, Adrian, you love your,your take I, I've gone away from
that. And my motto is simple.
Buy everything. So when Ipresent, I've got a workflow in
a system where I just work offone laptop with the screen, not
a JavaScript and nothing, justone laptop, remove all the tech
out of it. And I've just gotlittle workflows to make sure

(01:00:55):
that I know what's happening.
I'm reading the room, I'm ableto flick between things. Like
I'll share a screen stop sharinga screen very quickly, I'll ask
for thumbs up. And, you know,turn your microphone and tell me
that you know how things aregoing interrupt me at any time.
And I found that for me thatworks better because then I'm
not tied to a tech stack, so tospeak. And there's wireless I'm

(01:01:16):
just so sick of doingpresentations when something
goes wrong and you spend thefirst five minutes fumbling
trying to get your secondmonitor to work or something
like that. And you've lost thepeople so it's interesting we've
got Using Technology Betterwhole spectrum from me who is
like ultra like slimline. Just Iwant to make it as simple as
possible. Give me one to onething, one message, one laptop,

(01:01:37):
one screen through to Adrian whohave it looks like he landed in
a NASA Space Station somewhere.
Sometimes when I say you're setup. So I think Nicole and Paul,
you're probably somewhere in themiddle

Nicole Brown (01:01:51):
in the middle.

Absolutely.
Absolutely. Yeah. Tiny right.

Adrian Francis (01:01:57):
The client we've had this week. They've been
they've come from a newsroom. SoI've got screen envy, we're
looking behind the screensbehind them. I know they're just
showing things on telly, youjust think cool. How would you
possibly concentrate in a worldlike that?

That's interesting. I had a job in the
the other day when you'representing and one of the guys
in the session with Adrian was ahelicopter pilot. So I was in
the chat trying to save mewanted to swap jobs with me at
any stage.

You sound like the type of person who would also be
buying shoes, Mike.

Yeah That's cool.
All right, just want to start tobring this to an end. So in
terms of like your tips, Paul,I'm gonna pick on you first,
like if you had to summarize isback to one thing that someone
can take. You're a teacheryou're about to present in a
school. Maybe the one thing tothink about, or the one thing to
do, what would you summarizedown to do you think? Yeah, so I

Paul Hamilton (01:02:54):
think I, I'd probably come back to that
connection and relevance. Sowe've been talking a lot about
just asking how they going,what's happening in their life
before you start. I love thoselittle tips about okay, you're
logged in, give me somefeedback. Are you ready to go
give me a little thumbs up ifyou're going to join along with
me today. So I think just makingthat really strong connection
without waffling shouldn't takemore than five minutes. But just

(01:03:18):
make sure that participants feellike they're being heard and
that they're part of this andnot just a spectator. I think
that that would be my tip.

Yeah, excellent agent, what are your your tip
would be,

I try to remember what it's like to be on
the other end. So I kind of inmy head, I have two personas
sitting in the room, one's aperson that just doesn't want to
be there. I'm a math teacher, Idon't he can't tell me anything.
I'm sitting with my arms folded.
Or you've got the and I call himBrian. And then there could be
someone else. Like I calledJanine, who's very enthusiastic,

(01:03:50):
wants to do everything, butactually struggles massively
with technology. So I try tomake sure I try to talk to those
two people. And remember whatit's like when someone shows you
something and in your guts, it'sjust churning around because you
have no idea how that's gonnawork. See if it can relieve the
angst and if you can do that,then I think you've done your
job if they can't remember howto do the tech but they feel
happier about walking into theclassroom the next day. That's

(01:04:12):
when I reckon

awesome the call bring us home with something
incredibly wise.

Why did I have to go last. And for me, it's
bringing the energy and keepingup throughout the whole thing.
John tail off, you've got toremember like they are there to
learn from you. And they'rerelying on you to keep that
momentum going. So I think justcheck yourself for on it.
Reading the room, keeping theenergy up and just like being

(01:04:45):
yourself like be relatable humanbeing and if at the end of it,
they leave liking you. Andthat's that great. Like you've
built the connections, you'vebuilt the relationships and
you've got a good place You'reon a good place to come back.
And then, you know, impart sometech wisdom, the next time. But

(01:05:06):
if you if you don't have that,even if you have delivered a
great presentation content wiseand are going to remember
anything.

Yeah, so part of that energy part is just fueling
up, right? Hey, like, everyone'shad a presentation. If you do a
lot of this, where you've justeaten the wrong sort of thing
beforehand, and it's heavy carbsor something and just halfway
through, and you find yourselflike going through the floor.
Now, can you go near a sugarlamp, say, a sugar slob? So
yeah, I think just plenty goodfood, water is good. I think my

(01:05:36):
tip is that people alwaysremember how you make them feel.
So you're they're thinking it'sabout content. Really. It's not.
It's about like Paul said, it'sabout connection. And just try
and help them validate them as aperson. I'll never forget that
time. COVID was just hitting andwe were talking about this exact
thing, like how are we going topivot and do so much online and

(01:05:57):
that mental strain of presentingonline all day and things like
that, and one of those emailscoming through from a seasoned
teacher who said, you know, as aseasoned teacher, I'm at top of
my trade, I'm a good teacher.
But now I feel like I'm anabsolute idiot, because I don't
even know how to like, start avideo call with my students. And
I've gone from being anexcellent teacher just feeling

(01:06:17):
like an absolute ground, andobviously, paraphrasing, but she
was just so down on herself andbeing able to just work through
like a few little presentationtips. And it's, you know, you
don't have to do all this flashystuff. You just need to connect
with the students at the end ofthe day, and then seeing her
say, feel validated as ateacher. For me, I couldn't care
if he knew how to use a Googledoc at that end of that session,

(01:06:40):
so long as you're ready to goface another day. I'm happy. So
I think it's around that how doyou how do you make people feel
in that session? Not so don'tmake them feel stupid, make them
feel empowered, make them feellike they're relevant, that what
they're doing is good, even ifthey're questions annoy the hell
out of you. Like, take it on thechin be a bigger person and
validate that question, becausethere's something behind that.

(01:07:03):
That's worthy of a good answer,no matter how frustrated you
are. So I think just being inthat place of care, and
relationship, and leadership isreally important. All the other
stuff, all the other tips we'vetalked about, they they'll come.
But it's really about that humanconnection at the end of the
day, whether in person oronline. As we wrap up anything
else from you guys, anythingthat we've forgotten any burning

(01:07:26):
ideas that you've just thoughtabout?

Perfectly. We rehearse it, that is beautiful.

Wow, we're good at this.

Nothing like a bunch of presenters in a room
all at the same time trying tohave one person talking at a
time, right? It's always goodfun. Next time, we should try
and have the whole I dunno have15 or 20 of us or whatever there
is on at the same time and seewhat see how many words you get
in, would be fun. So anyway, Iappreciate you guys listening
all the way to the end,hopefully, we've given you
something to think about interms of your presentation

(01:08:05):
skills, whether you'representing to your class,
whether you're presenting toparents, whether you're
presenting to executiveleadership team on an idea that
you've got, whether you'retrying to do professional
development in your school or toschools around you. Hopefully,
this is something that you cantake away and apply to your your
practice. We're definitelyseeing this as a trend in in

(01:08:26):
schools and Catholic Diocese andorganizations that we work with,
where we used to get a lot ofrequests for Can we come and,
you know, show them how to useGoogle Docs or jam board or
PowerPoint and so on. But nowwe're starting to see a lot of
requests coming through sayinghow do we how do we present
better? How do we get ourmessage across better? How do we
start to make an impact andbring in some of these tools and

(01:08:48):
use them in authentic ways. Andso based on the back of a lot of
those conversations I've beenhaving with schools and
districts and diocese, wethought this might be a really
good podcast conversation to getyou thinking about your
presentation and what you cando. Obviously, we'd love to come
in and workshop some of thiswith you show you what to do.
We've got workshops happeningall the time, so you can come
and watch our team in action.
And we're always looking forways to improve. So if you've

(01:09:11):
got an idea that we didn'tcover, if you want to share
anything, then by all means, putit up on the socials and tag it
with hashtag outclass podcastand we'll see that and we'd love
to give you a shout out. Or youcan always go to the blog at
using technology better.comwhere this podcast will be. And
leave us comment. We'll have abit of a conversation with you.

(01:09:32):
So team, appreciate you beingwith us on a Friday afternoon.
Or Friday evening for Nicole andagain really love the work you
guys do. And I will see you nexttime on The Outcast podcast.

Unknown (01:09:48):
Thanks for listening for more episodes and show notes
visit UTB dot FYI forward slashoutclassed

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