Presentation Tip: Flip-Chart Alternative
National Speakers Association member and writing maven, Linda Vanderwold, CSP impressed the audience at a recent chapter meeting with her high-impact presentation set-up. She made extensive use of PowerPoint to illustrate both her mind-mapping templates and the complexities of Sentence Aerobics and Target Editing.
Many presenters spend time with their back to the audience. They either write on a flip-chart or, more commonly, gesture at the screen, often resorting to those ghastly, geeky, red-dot laser pointers beloved of the pocket-protector crowd.
Not our Linda.
Advantages of stand-mounted Tablet PC’s
She used the combination of a Tablet PC mounted on a stand with pen-based digital ink technology to illustrate her training material – all while facing the audience.
Tablet PC’s fold the screen onto the keypad, display-side out. This allowed Linda to look down at the display on mounted at shoulder-height. She avoided having to look at the screen behind her. The robust tripod stand is similar to those court reporters use. But that’s not all. In addition, she had a wireless connection to a custom-configured projector able to handle what would otherwise be upside-down images.
But wait, there’s more!
The really cool part was the way she added handwritten notes onto slides to illustrate her talk. Think of the the old style foils instructors used to write on back in the 1990’s. This gave way to PowerPoint with endless ‘builds’ no-one could really manage or follow. Mindless automation – glitz for no reason. That’s so last century. Linda showcased the 21st Century alternative.
Overlaying the touch-screen with the PowerPoint slide is an electronic transparency and a pen that uses different colors and weights of ‘digital ink’.
Linda used the digital pen to highlight anything on the slide that she wanted to emphasize. She also used the pen and ink to take notes, record questions, or add comments. This is ideal for many instruction and training situations. PowerPoint is the foundation of the content but not the star of the show. The presenter is the active agent, in control, adding value. It’s hip, it’s seamless and it really wow’d the audience.
Kudos to Linda for being at the cutting-edge of technology.
Resources for Tablet PCs
References I’ve found include a report of a Lawrence University of Wisconsin professor using an HP Tablet to enhance learning. I also found this list of useful software that takes advantage of ink-based features.
Finally, these four slides from Microsoft on digital ink best practices are worth downloading.
3 Comments so far
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Gosh, Ian, how did you guess I wanted more information about that laptop Linda was using! My only concern about her great presentation, btw, was that I was a teensy bit distracted with thinking, “oooh, I want one of those toys!”
By Beth Proudfoot on 11.08.08 10:25 am
Ian- Thanks for this. I use a Fujitsu tablet PC for my presentations. I have been using a make shift riser on the table using boxes that I brought my materials in wrapped in a table cloth. Who knew there was such a thing as a stand? This is awesome! Thanks for the link. Keep up the good work. -KIM-
By Kim Snider on 11.09.08 7:10 pm
I first saw such a system here in Melbourne last year when Jennifer Goddard displayed it during a MindMap demo which she combined excellently with Powerpoint and a Fujitsu Tablet. As a MacMan, I use a Wacom Bluetooth tablet and don’t have to be at the Macbook at all and can roam the room when necessary. The tablet also control slide advancing and can write on the slides. It has about 10-15 metres range. More and more wireless-equipped projectors will make life a lot easier, but so far I’ve found the links to be quite slow and put my timing off.
By Les Posen on 11.11.08 11:11 am
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