TECHNOLOGY SUGGESTIONS
Preparing for using the digital projectors at the conference.
There will only be digital projectors available at the 2009 MAPACA conference in Boston.
This means area chairs should make arrangements to bring a laptop to the panel. If the area chair is not attending, the chair should make sure the panel chair or someone on the panel will bring a laptop. MAPACA is NOT providing laptops.
The hotel in Boston is better suited for use with PCs, not Macs. It is also a good idea to be sure all presentations are loaded onto the laptop which will be used in the panel BEFORE the panel starts. This will save time, frustration, and energy.
1) Be sure the presentations open in advance. Older versions of PowerPoint, which show as .ppt files, the new version of PowerPoint, which shows as a .pptx file, won't open.
2) Presenters can email their presentations to a site like SendSpace, at www. spendspace. com (remove spaces) and then chairs can download from there. Or, presenters can send their presentations to directly to the chair.
3) In the event that the presenter cannot send the presentation in advance,
the chair and presenter need to make arrangements to meet BEFORE the panel starts to download the presentation and work out any kinks. This will prevent delays and annoyance during the panel. Be courteous to your fellow presenters and your audience.
Loretta Lorance
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- Presenting a paper is not necessarily the same as READING a paper. While reading aloud is a perfectly permissible means of sharing ideas and information, significant content may be lost when, for example, a long paper must be cut short because of time. To read past the 15 or 20 minutes allowed for your part of a panel is unfair to other presenters, who must cut their own presentations short.
- If reading a paper aloud, consider that a well paced reading of a double-spaced page will take between one minute, 20 seconds and one minute, 45 seconds. At a minute and a half per page, the maximum length for a 15-minute paper is 10 pages. If your paper is longer, you may not be able to share your ideas in the allotted time. Flipping through the last half of a paper gives listeners a sense of imbalance, since ideas generally are supposed to grow stronger and more engaging as the piece nears its conclusion.
- If you choose to read your paper, try to speak to the audience even as you read. Look up from your paper, make eye contact with different people and speak up and out, not into the desk. Finally, remember that nervousness often makes people rush; practice reading to someone else to get a solid grasp of what speed you should be reading.
- One alternative to reading verbatim is to summarize your main points for the presentation and make available copies of the full paper for conference participants. That way, even someone who was unable to attend your session can be exposed to your ideas. Another alternative is to make use of the various multimedia tools available for speakers, scholars, and presenters. Graphic representations of your main points, whether text or pictures, will help participants remember what you had to say. Imagine reading a paper that describes the content of 40s pulp magazines while you project their lurid covers on a screen. For photographs, a slide carousel is a simple but effective means of presentation. You may take your own photographs of locations, book covers, food, or anything else you wish to discuss and have them developed as slides.
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- If you have a laptop computer and a digital projector (or can borrow them from your institution), you will find Power Point a useful tool for making slides, particularly with animation. If you do not have access to laptops and projectors, try burning a DVD or making a videotape which can be played on one of the DVD/VHS combination players MAPACA owns. Composite DVDs or videotapes are especially effective in film or TV presentations, but also can be useful for fields as disparate as architecture, death, music, sex, and food. If technology is completely foreign to you, you might try having important points or pictures made into posters at a copy shop.
- Physical examples of a subject are always good. If you have a collection of some kind, display it. If you're discussing an unusual food, bring some. If you have an instrument, whether musical, medical, or medieval, bring it to pass around or demonstrate. If you're describing unusual music, bring samples and what you need to play them.
- Remember that glitches happen. Batteries die, bulbs burn out, tapes break, CDs get corrupted, and equipment sometimes fails. Have a back-up plan-printed handouts, posters, extra batteries, extra CDs, your data on a flash drive-whatever you need to finish your presentation.
- Finally, standing is almost always better than sitting. Remember to practice (and time) your presentation beforehand. If you video- or audio tape yourself, you may be able to identify strengths and weaknesses before you reach the conference. While at the conference, attend as many sessions as you can. Learn from experienced presenters. And relax. Usually, those who attend your presentation are giving presentations themselves and have had their own first experiences with an audience. For the most part, attendees are sympathetic and supportive, which makes MAPACA not just a place to begin as a scholar but a place to mature as well.
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