Chatterbee's In-class Presentation Instructions

Basic Info

Preparing and Giving Your Interactive Presentation

So, you'd like to add some interactivity to your in-class presentation? Well, here you'll find all the info, advice and tips that you'll need to add an interactive site to your presentation!

Before you start planning your interactive presentation, remember that your presentation must rely on more than just on the interactive site that you've decided to add to your presentation. That is, the interactive stuff should be used IN ADDITION to whatever research and oral reporting that you will do for your in-class presentation. Okay, with that said, all you need to do is follow this checklist to create and perform your presentation!

1. Choose an interactive site from Chatterbee's Instant In-class Presentations page.

Then, visit that site and familiarize yourself with how it works. Try to get a general idea

about how you may want to integrate it (or part of it) into your presentation.

2. Make sure your teacher says it's okay to use the site as part of your in-class

presentation. If the site is okay with your teacher, ask your teacher to:

- Visit the site with the classroom computer in order to be sure that the interactive site

runs properly on that computer.

- Make arrangements with your school's media department to have the computer's

screen set up so that it can be either displayed on a TV or projected onto a large

screen. This is VERY important as even the largest computer monitors are just too

small for an in-class presentation. You'll want to be absolutely sure that your

classmates can see your presentation's interactive stuff!

- Have the school's Information Technology person (the computer expert) add a sound

card and speakers to the computer if it doesn't have those things already.

3. Create index cards that contain the things that you plan to say during your

presentation. (Using index cards is usually easier than reading off of sheets of

notebook paper!). And remember to create index cards that you will use especially for

the interactive part of your in-class presentation.

4. At least three days before your in-class presentation, ask your teacher if you can

stay after class (or school) for fifteen to twenty minutes so that you can make

absolutely sure that the interactive site runs properly on your classroom's

computer. This includes:

- making sure that the computer is hooked up to either a TV set or to a large screen

projector.

- downloading and installing any necessary plug-ins (Shockwave, Quicktime, etc.)

required to run the site.

- checking the sound volumn to make sure that the volumn is high enough for your

classmates to hear (Note: Not all interactive sites use sound.)

Be sure that you have arranged a ride home. If the site doesn't run correctly, ask your

teacher to get the school's computer expert or media department expert to stop by and

fix whatever needs to be fixed.

5. On the day of your presentation:

- When class starts, be sure your classroom's computer is turned on. On the

computer, go to the Chatterbee's Instant Presentations page and click the link to the

interactive site that you will use in your presentation. That way, you won't have to

navigate to it that site during your presentation -- and that will make your presentation

go more smoothly.

- Before you are to get up in front of your class, get the interactive site to display on the

classroom TV or on a large screen (whichever you are using). Again, this will save you

time by not having to do this during your actual presentation.

- Give your presentation. When you get to the interactive stuff, if the site uses sound,

be sure to ask your classmates if they can hear the sound. If they can't, take a

moment to turn up the volumn as necessary.

Tips and Advice to Make Your Presentation Run Smoothly

- Try to put your interactive stuff in the middle (more or less) of your presentation. That

is, if your presentation is an oral one, make sure that you have some stuff to speak

about before the interactive stuff as well as after the interactive stuff.

- If you experience a problem with the interactive site during your presentation, try the

following:

- Click the Refresh button in your web browser. That will reload the current page

of the interactive site so that you can start that particular page over again.

- As doing an interactive presentation can involve a lot of time doing mouse

clicks, ask another student to click the site's buttons for you when you ask

them to do so. This also allows you to face the class rather than spend time

clicking or typing on the computer during the presentation.

- Let another student do his/her presentation before you do yours. While that student is

doing his/her presentation, you can be setting up the classroom computer for

your presentation.

- Ask you teacher to have the school's computer expert sit in on your presentation -- or

even assist you a bit during the presentation. That way, if anything goes wrong, the

expert will be right there to fix things quickly!

- If you find that the interactive stuff on a site will run too long for your in-class

presentation, try just using SOME of the site's interactive stuff. Remember, there's no

rule saying that you need to use all of the interactive content that's available on a site.

If using only some of it will get the job done for you, then just use as much as will

you need!

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