Handout from USC Professor Kevin Egan from the February 17, 2012 Faculty Forum: Student Multimedia Presentations

1. Turning a Research Paper for Posc 248/Writ 140 into a Collaborative Presentation
When the Center for Scholarly Technology asked us to try using the new technology-enhanced
classrooms for a student technology project, my Writing Program colleague Indra
Mukhopadhyay and I decided to try having our students take a piece of completed written work
(a 7-10 page research paper) and adapting it for a collaborative presentation; we did this with all
our four sections. (Indra’s classes were affiliated with Linguistics 115, Language and Society.)
We were on the usual very tight November schedule for Writing 140, so the only way we could
do it, we felt, was by bootstrapping the project onto work that would already be done.
I placed students in themed groups of 4––the group themes were based on some common
elements in those students’ papers. (Because of the thematic emphasis of Posc 248, on
International Human Rights, that worked out surprisingly easily: the themes of the groups are
included with the materials that follow.)
As part of our preparation, we read Edward Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, and I
encouraged them to follow Tufte’s advice for presentations: slides for main ideas and
illustrations, handouts for abundant and useful data to take away.
Ed O’Neill also came to our classes to give a brief demonstration of the advantages of putting all
presentations on the web, e.g. using Picasa or Prezi. All the students did that, with excellent
results.
We spent a class period discussing Tufte, and another period for getting organized and beginning
the collaborations. Students did the rest of the collaborative work outside class: some via
Facebook, others in Google groups, others by email, others by meeting up in the library.
The presentations went very well, and the students reported that the work was interesting,
educational, and enjoyable. On the following pages, you’ll find examples of handout pages,
which show how informative those can be, and also my initial instructions to the class, a rubric
for scoring presentations that students worked to, and my final overall assessment of the
presentations, which I sent to the students at the end of the semester––there was no time for a
class debriefing, which I would have preferred, but we did what we could.
I hope to do this kind of project again, starting in mid-semester so that we can spend more time
on post-presentation debriefing and reflection.

2. POSC 248/WRIT 140
Kevin Egan/Fall 2011
Research presentation and Assignment 5 invention activity
1) On Thursday, you'll meet in groups, which I will arrange according to similar topics; make
arrangements to email your paper to your 3 partners so they can read it.
2) Each student will choose one primary text from his/her A4 research.
3) Each student will create 3 "slides", including at least two images/texts/video clips that are
central to your topic; to accompany those slides, each student will be responsible for one
page of an eventual 4-page (Tufte-style) handout.
4) Having read all papers, group will decide on a presentation strategy (serial, conceptual)
5) At the end of presentation, group will discuss how digital presentations affected their
conception of a) topic, and b) audience.
I am strongly recommending that you upload your slides to a Picasaweb account. This will save
everyone a *lot* of trouble with incompatible computers and formats. We are having a
technology specialist visit on Thursday to demonstrate how that works.
Special note: you can write about your A4 paper research and writing process and this
presentation experience for your A5 essay.
______________________________________________________________________________
Groups (two classes):
Minority Issues
Organ Trafficking
Civil Liberties (two groups)
Global Inequality
Civil Liberties
Exploiting the Powerless
Excesses of the Corporate State

3. Kevin
Egan/Fall
2011
Posc248/Writ140
A 5-Point Rubric for Your Presentations
Here's a simple 5-point rubric for the presentation, which I hope will help you keep the task in
perspective. You have a 15-minute slot: I'd recommend planning 10 or so minutes, and leaving
4-5 minutes for questions and discussion. If you make an engaging presentation, you should
generate questions and discussion very naturally.
* 2 points: for a lively and informative presentation
(You can think of this as The Fun Factor, which reminds us of a key point in presenting: it
should be stimulating! Everyone enjoys learning interesting, relevant facts, and if the presenters
are excited about the information, the audience probably will be too. You're talking about some
pretty serious subjects, but you can still do that in an energetic, engaged way.)
* 1 point: for a clear presentation of the broad topic and its context
(Why is this an important subject? What are the key aspects you are going to cover? How do the
different sub-topics (i.e. your separate research papers) relate to the broad area? Make sure to
make that clear right at the start of the presentation: it organizes it for your audience, just like a
thesis statment.)
*1 point: interesting, relevant, well-chosen slides and an informative handout
(Here, I'll be looking for a good balance between what's appropriate for the screen, and what's
appropriate for the page; and a good selection of relevant information and/or perspectives.)
* 1 point: teamwork
(Everyone contributes! Here too, I'd like to see you sharing the presentation duties; but it's up to
you how to present. You can take turns, work in teams by themes, all be available for q and a: be
a team.)
______________________________________________________________________________
____________________________
Advice for A5: since the topic is how digital media affect reasoning, you should make a few
notes on your thinking process as you convert your research paper into a presentation. How did
the different media, print versus internet/presentation, affect the way you presented your
topic? Is having to be more selective an advantage or a disadvantage? How do different media
affect our sense of an audience? How do different media affect the possibility of convincing
people to pay attention to an important subject?
Make a few notes on those questions: they could come in really handy when you plan A5!

4. Kevin
Egan/Fall
2011
Posc
248/Writ
140
Instructor Feedback to Both Classes after Presentations
I want to give you an overview of what I took from the presentations: I think you did
extraordinarily well under severe time pressure, and I enjoyed them very much; you are going to
get very good grades for your presentations. Based on your success, especially in the
collaborative parts, we'll be incorporating a presentation component in future terms, except that
we'll do it mid-semester rather than at the end (this project only got started at the end of October,
hence the rush).
Here's what I learned, which I hope will help you in future presentations.
1) Tufte appears to be right about the relation between slides and handouts: they're good for
different tasks, and presentations go well when you take advantage of the strengths of each.
2) I thought the most successful slides were a) medium density; and b) a mix of media.
Low density slides have just one or two elements, e.g. a large cartoon and a caption, or some
headings and a bit of text.
Medium density slides usually have a mix of elements: some graphics, perhaps a simple chart, an
illustration or photo, plus some clear captioning that connects the material to a theme. There
could also be some short text, say an important quotation or short paragraph. There might be a
video clip too, though a video clip by itself (with just a caption), especially a longer one,
qualifies as medium density also. Well-chosen videos added a lot to presentations, but you don't
want to go on for too long: I thought between 1 and 2 minutes were the most effective, and closer
to 1 is probably better. If you do need a longer video clip, be sure to stop it periodically to
interpret and discuss the segment: that can be very effective.
High density slides usually had dense text, plus captions, sometimes largely a repeat of the
handout; but probably too much text to read comfortably from the audience, and people tend to
read those out, which feels redundant.
3) People did very effective presentations based in either Picasa and Prezi, but I thought that the
Prezi interface gives you some very useful and dynamic options, and it scales full screen more
effectively (no menu bars remaining, for example). It also allows you to sign in together and
work collaboratively, which seemed to help coordination. Some people coordinated through
Facebook: perhaps you should write Mark Zuckerberg and suggest that they build in a
presentation tool as well. Include your résumé when you do...
A word of caution, though: some of Prezi's animations are a little too much fun--they're so
dynamic they can draw attention away from the material, so you want to watch out for that.
4) I thought the most effective handouts would have pleased Tufte: they were dense with useful
information, both textual and charted. I saw some very effective tables, colorful charts, important

5. Kevin
Egan/Fall
2011
Posc
248/Writ
140
selections of quoted material, and many clever mixes of all three. Some people used small fonts
to get more on the page, which worked well! Remember that a handout is also a takeaway:
people will take it home after the presentation, and they'll be glad to have a compact reference to
remind them of your ideas.
5) Presentations are better when you don't say "um" a lot! Practice that: it's important, and the
key skill is knowing what you're going to say and concentrating on saying it. It's a kind of
presence of mind, which comes from being well-prepared.
Other than that, people did quite well: found a good tempo, said your piece, got off stage. Try to
look at each member of the audience rather than just one or two in the front: most of you did that,
since you know each other, but it can be a bit harder with strangers.
That's it: I hope you enjoyed the process, but even if you were a bit stressed, I guarantee that
these skills will be useful to you in your careers: any careers! And thanks again for your creative
and enjoyable work, which is going to be extremely helpful for us as we plan ways to integrate
technology and teaching more successfully.

11. Slide
1:
(INTRODUCTION
Wealth
inequality-­‐
GINI
index
of
U.S.
compared
to
Europe
European
Union
30.4
(2009
est.)
31.2
(1996
est.)
United
States
45
(2007)
40.8
(1997)
GINI
Index
measures
income
inequality
with
0
being
perfectly
equal
and
100
being
perfectly
unequal.
There
is
a
clear
trend
to
support
growing
wealth
inequality
(GINI
info
above)
and
with
CEO
pay
being
185x
average
worker
pay.
(Below)
Slide
2:
(ARGUMENT)
Financial
deregulation
has
led
in
increasing
amounts
of
wealth
being
accumulated
by
people
working
on
‘the
street’.
In
addition,
the
Federal
Reserve
Policy
of
keeping
a
strong
dollar
has
led
to
job
outsourcing
and
job
losses
for
average
Americans,
while
the
owners
of
companies
can
still
benefit
by
outsourcing.
Slide
3.
(COUNTERARGUMENT)
Maybe
we
have
a
meritocracy
where
the
people
who
work
hard
are
compensated
for
it?
This
idea
appears
to
be
accepted
by
many,
however,
let
us
examine
our
educational
system
to
see
if
everyone
starts
off
with
similar
advantages
and
disadvantages.

12. POWER OF THE ELITES
Generally speaking, wealthis the value of everything a person or family owns, minus any debts.
However, for purposes of studying the wealth distribution, economists define wealth in terms
ofmarketable assets, such as real estate, stocks, and bonds, leaving aside consumer durables like
cars and household items because they are not as readily converted into cash and are more valuable
to their owners for use purposes than they are for resale (see Wolff, 2004, p. 4, for a full
discussion of these issues). Once the value of all marketable assets is determined, then all debts,
such as home mortgages and credit card debts, are subtracted, which yields a person's net worth.
In addition, economists use the concept of financial wealth -- also referred to in this document as
"non-home wealth" -- which is defined as net worth minus net equity in owner-occupied housing. As
Wolff (2004, p. 5) explains, "Financial wealth is a more 'liquid' concept than marketable wealth,
since one's home is difficult to convert into cash in the short term. It thus reflects the resources
that may be immediately available for consumption or various forms of investments."