April 15th 2021 - Using Visual Aids and Making Debate Resolutions

Chapter 14

By Ethan Tsvayg and Jacob Gurevich

Using Visual Aids

Different types of Visual Aids

Objects and Models: Should be clear and comprehensible

Photographs and Drawings: Should be clear and visible, don't be blurry, too big, or too small

Graphs and Charts: Graphs should be clear and not cluttered with

too much information, charts should summarize the information presented 

Video: Don't be too long, has to be clear and viewable to all of the audience

Speaker: Body language could be one of the best visual aids,

by moving your hands, you can reenact how different

events can play out to the audience

Presentation Technology (like animation transitions)

Cons: Over used, distract the audience, barriers to learning 

Pros: But if used well, can help the presentation be less static and more engaging

• This slide shows that when you have poorly stretched images and poorly colored words, the slides don’t appear professional and you lose credibility.

Presentation Guidelines

- Don't use too much text, it will take away from the image

- Prepare your visuals before the presentation

- Clear Images are needed and easy to comprehend by anyone 

- Don't confuse the audience with too much color and poor fonts usage

- There should be a contrast between the background color and font color

- The fancy fonts are less effective, use the standard ones like Arial or Cambria

• 

• Bright colors that don’t contrast each other make it impossible to read the text and understand what is being presented in the slide.

Presenting Visual Aids

- Make sure they don't take up your entire speech

- Place them when listeners can view them easily

- Display them only when the discussion includes them

- Explained clearly and in detail to add a benefit to the presentation

Make Sure to... (Visual Aid Checklist)

- Make sure the image is clear and comprehensible to all listeners

- Do not block your visual aids when presenting, 

- Display visual aids when discussing said visual aid

- Be prepared and practiced with your visual aids

- Make sure that you have a backup to your visual aids if they don't work

                                                        -Poorly spaced photos ruin the integrity and professionalism of the slide 

Reviewing Chapter 17 Presentation's Mistakes

- Chapter 17's Presentation was a sample done by Ms. Sanguinedo

- Text oddity, Logos had logo on one line and s on another line

- Some Pictures didn't make sense in the context of the slide

- Subtle Changes between the early morning (In-person) and afternoon (Remote) versions

- The checklist for presenting visual aids (try to get all yeses here)

Debates and Topics

- Creating a specific resolution for each topic

- Resolve is a statement (choosing one side or another)

- Example Topic: Do video games cause violence in children?

- Example Resolve: Resolve that Video Games cause violence in children

- Another example: Death Penalty should be abolished, 

    Resolve that The death penalty is inhumane

- There could be other possible resolves for a topic, such as 

    Resolve that The death penalty should be abolished nationwide

Resolves should pick a side and be a specific focus on the topic you chose

- Classwork: Making your debate topics (from the google form) into debate resolves

Debate Rules

- You will be choosing the top 3 choices

- Will be put in a group of 3 with similar topics

- Only 1 debate topic per participant

- Pro/Con will not be chosen by the person

- It will be randomly assigned to a group

- Research is done, then collected 

- The breakout rooms/groups for planning

- 4-5 Minutes per side introduction, 3-4 per subsequent, 

This- Followed by questions then closing statements 

Reflections

Ethan Tsvayg- Overall, the presentation was about how to properly use visual aids in your presentations, mainly when using technology. The main idea is to use them when it’s necessary, to expand on a topic, or to explain it in a more simple and better way. One example is when talking about a topic like the great depression, use a video that talks about the Great Depression (like Crash Course’s video on the topic). It needs to be also appropriate in the context like if you are talking about dogs, don’t use an image of a cat (use an image of a dog). Make sure the visual aid is visible and audible to the entire audience, as a blurry chart will make it harder to understand. One other thing is, putting too many visual aids, transitions, different colored text, and fonts make the presentation look tacky and cringy. For example, yellow-colored comic sans font is unappealing and is hard to read, so use the basic fonts that every essay requires (like Times New Roman size 18 font, with color either black or white depending on the background). You want it to be readable, so your audience can grasp the topic.  If your audience can’t understand what you are trying to say, because the images are blurry, the video is irrelevant and the font is hard to read, your presentation is not successful. Even if it is the best text ever, and has really good points, if the audience cant understands it and gets distracted, it is bad. However, although I railed against when people abuse visual aids, they are good. It can make the presentation more engaging, less static, and more interested in the topic. Finally, being prepared for the use of visual aids, as if they don’t work, you need a backup plan. It will be embarrassing if you look at a blank page when the visual isn’t working (no good). Overall, the presentation was good, as the idea of a presentation in a presentation seemed interesting. It gave a good example of what not to do, showing examples of bad fonts, poor usage of visual aids, and more, and how they corrected the aids to make a better presentation. The usage of animals as a theme was an easy way to convey many of the goals of proper usage of visual aids.

The next main part was about the debate topics, as it deals with creating resolves. As I have done debates before, I know what a resolution is supposed to be, a clear specific point of a topic. For example, a topic like the US should fight against climate change can have a resolution of “Resolved that The United States should give more federal funding to fight climate change”. This means there is an affirmative and opposition side (the affirmative says yes, the US government should give more federal funding to fight climate change and the opposition says no, the US government should not give more federal funding to fight climate change). The rules were also set, which makes it clearer how the debates will work. I think the rules are fine and are similar to the debates I have done before. These debates seem interesting to do, except for the long amount of time that I will spend writing on the debate topic.

Jacob Gurevich reflection-

Unfortunately, I had to undergo a fake covid school testing and missed the first 20 minutes of the fabulous presentation. However, I still retained and took in a lot of information about using visual aids in presentations. I learned that when presenting any form of visual aids, there has to be a level of professionalism to the slides. When depicting images, there are many things to consider; including the sizing of the images, the resolution of the images, and the significance of the images. We saw in the examples provided by the group that images that don’t correspond to the topic of the slide give an off putting feel to the presentation. We also witnessed some examples of poorly stretched pictures and poorly sized pictures, which demonstrated the lack of care and effort that is noticed when the pictures aren’t in the correct area. Other than images, the text which is put onto the slides is also extremely vital. If you color the text with bright vivid colors and match it with the background, it is almost impossible to read. The text not only needs to be related to the images, but be visible to the audience. The overall presentation was great and I valued the effort put to show the examples of what not to do. After the presentation, our class talked about the upcoming debate topics from which we will choose from. We learned what a resolve was( a candid statement on what you are debating) and what an affirmative and opposition is. In the class, we started to make our own examples of a resolution to a few debate topics. We started off with the topic of gun control. One example of a resolution would be “Resolved that gun control should be established”. This sets the affirmative up w a clear narrative and gives the opposition a clear opportunity to state their view.