Multimedia Presentations
Include multimedia components and visual displays when appropriate to help develop a presentation's main ideas or themes.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Select graphics, images, or sound that support and clarify main ideas in a presentation
- Create slides or visual aids that enhance rather than distract from the spoken content
- Integrate multimedia elements smoothly into an oral presentation
1 · Read
Pictures, diagrams, charts, video and sound can support a spoken message. Choose media that helps explain your main idea. Leave it out when it adds nothing to that idea. A presentation does not need every kind of media. A bar chart compares amounts: taller bars show larger amounts.
A photo can show appearance. A diagram can show parts or steps, such as how rain forms. Jordan uses a rainforest photo to show the canopy. A bird recording helps listeners hear the sounds Jordan describes. Jordan leaves out a cat video that has no link to the rainforest talk.
Give each slide a clear job. To explain a photo, use a readable image with a short heading and any needed label. Make words large enough for listeners to read. Long blocks of tiny text can compete with listening. Other slides may need a chart, a short quotation or words alone. A picture is useful only when it helps with the slide's job.
Show a visual when you discuss its idea. Explain what listeners should notice and how it supports your point. Reading slide text alone may leave a diagram unexplained. You can use notes or a script. Introduce a clip before playing it. If its sound competes with your voice, pause your speech during the clip, then explain its link to your idea. Practise the timing and volume.
Good multimedia supports your main idea instead of distracting from it, and it flows smoothly with what you say.
Lesson, questions and flashcards written for this dataset. Presentation situations and survey data are invented.
Five readings about choosing and using presentation media written for this dataset.
More to read
What should the visual show?
Imagine giving a talk about a model boat. A photograph could show its shape. A diagram could identify its parts. A chart could compare the distances it travelled in different tests. These visuals answer different questions.
Decide what listeners need to understand before choosing the visual. If your point concerns the test results, a photograph alone will not show the distances.
Practise saying what the chosen visual contributes. Name the detail listeners should notice and explain its connection to your point. Remove a visual when you cannot identify a useful job for it.
Try the view from the back
Before presenting, display a slide and move to the back of the room. Can you read its heading and labels from there? Ask another person to try too.
If the text is difficult to read, enlarge it or shorten it. Check that the words stand out against the background. Separate text from busy parts of a photograph.
Look at the image as well. It must still show the feature you plan to discuss. Making a photograph larger can reveal blur. Stretching it unevenly can change the shapes it shows. Check the finished slide at the size the audience will see.
Plan before collecting pictures
Write down the message you want listeners to remember. Under it, list the information that supports that message. This gives you a reason for choosing each slide.
For example, a talk comparing library visits could use a chart of visit totals. A photograph of the library entrance would show the building, but it would not show those totals.
Beside each planned slide, note what you will explain aloud. Check whether the audience needs to see information, hear a sound or listen to your explanation without a display. You do not need to add media to every part.
Rehearse with the recording
Suppose a recording helps explain a musical instrument. Practise with the actual recording, not only with your speaking notes. Check its volume and when it starts and stops.
Tell listeners what to listen for before playing it. If speaking over the recording makes either part hard to hear, give the recording its own moment. Afterwards, connect the sound to the point you are explaining.
Add a cue to your notes so you know when to start the clip. Plan what you could explain in words if it does not play. Rehearsal lets you find these problems before the talk.
Use a display while explaining
A project display can stay in view while you answer visitors' questions. Follow your assignment's requirements for what belongs on it.
Give each section a heading that describes its contents. Put a chart near the result it supports. A short caption can explain what the chart records when you are not standing there.
Practise a short explanation beside the display. Refer to the section that answers the visitor's question and describe the useful detail. Check that visitors can read it from where they stand. For borrowed material, record its source and check the conditions for using it.
2 · Watch
En anglaisTake it off screen
Where it sits
Learn first
Nothing; this is a starting point.
Optional connections
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.