Reflection on my learning in AEP

a) What are the most valuable things you learned about the process of preparing and delivering presentations? (2 or more)
Firstly, It is quite valuable for me to know how to use slides and pictures effectively. Before taking this class, I always put too many words in one slide and the audience always got bored. Through this class, my paradigm was shifted and I understood the effective way. The book of Zen is quite useful but also my classmates' slides are also good textbook for me. Honestly, I did not expect my classmates are so great to use slides so they motivated me and I tried using slides uniquely, differently from them.

Secondly, I learned how to organize group presentations a little. To tell the truth, it was not perfect but it was a great experience for me.
I usually do not do a group presentation even in Japanese because I did not like it. The effort to organize thoughts are really tough and I still like a single presentation better than a group project. I, however, got many things from my group members and it was so beneficial.
Mai and Miki's presentation style were a little bit different and what they concentrate on was different. I tend to focus on how to do a unique presentation but they are more likely to do presentations professionally and especially Mai's powerpoint skill was awesome. Through this group work, I learned how to organize a serious presentation and maybe it's becasue of this group presentation, not a single presentation.



b) In what presentation skill areas do you feel you have made progress or improved your awareness? (2 or more)
1.Getting attention. Since I lacked the English ability to speak well, I thought I should get attention by other ways. I never used funny pictures in my presentations before, but I used funny pictures in this class and it seemed effective to get attention. Also, I attempted a participation presentation. When I talked about the meditation, I just used a minute for doing meditation with classmates and that experiment was exciting for me. It was too short but I would try that type of activity in my future presentations.

2. I got some confidence for doing presentation. Beforehand, I did not use English and did not take English course a lot. Because of my English ability, I avoid taking English course especially which I need to do a presentation or discussion in English.
From September in this year, I would go to the US as an exchange student, I changed my mind and participated in AEP course. At the beginning of this class, it was, honestly speaking, owful because I just understood the half of the contents which my classmates were speaking and I never did a presentation in English before that. I therefore felt embarrassed and did not think I could do well like other classmates.
But little by little, I got used to this situation and I thought I should have the confidence. Since they were so kind, they did not laugh at my mistakes (except for meditation). I was getting outgoing in the sense of speaking English and I attempted chatting OYL friends more actively outside of this class.


c) What points do you want to improve further in your future presentations? How can you improve those? (2 or more)
1. I want to control what I would say in my presentation. My presentation is almost automatic and I usually think nothing. It is a kind of effective to do presentation well but it is also a troublesome occasionally and what's more, it is difficult to improve my presentation. In fact, I sometimes forgot eye contact and my speaking speed because I did not afford to mention them. it's because I did not try to make good scripts and to rehearsal in front of others. For avoiding them, I can prepare more.

2. I want to do a presentation more rhythmically. So far, I do not have my own "flow" to speech, I really want to find that. In order that, I need to practice more and do presentation in front of audiences. In English, I just have a few experience to do maybe almost only in this class. In this term, I want to take a small English course and I would use the opportunity of doing presentations.

About the last presentation

a) The process of preparation and rehearsal
Honestly, our preparation was not enough especially because we did not have the time to do a rehearsal well. The main reason was, I guess, the difficulty of our topic because our topic was a little bit tricky one for the theme and we sometimes got confused what we could tell about that.
It, however, does not mean we did not take our time for the presentation. We met sometimes outside of class and we argued about the content. For me, such kind of experience was interesting because I do not do a group presentation usually so this experience reminded me my first year in this university.

b) The effectiveness of the introduction
This was not my part but I think this part was most well-constructed. In fact, the content was good. If I have to say something to this, It should contain more effective attention getter such as a video, unique question, or some sound effect.

c) The persuasiveness and organization of the content in the body
Using graph was effective and this part involves the reason why we need money. At least, it made audience imagine the current situation in ICU. Using more slides was perhaps better.

d) The conclusion and Q&A
This was my part. Through this presentation, I tried some experiments on presentation. The first one is using slow voice because I tend to speak rapidly as usual. According to my classmates' advices, it was too much and I should have use both slow and fast talking for more effective speech. Anyways, I understand how to use the slow voice and it is a little successful for me.
My second experiment is using metaphor. While doing presentation, I tried using a plant metaphor as education. This idea came from the idea which people tend to prefer a story to a logic. I thought the content is important but the expression would be more important occasionally
so I wanted to know how to use a metaphor effectively. This experiment was pretty successful. It might be not enough but I understood the effect through the chatting with my classmate. I guess I can gesture more for expressing the metaphor.
My third experiment is a tricky, unique, and sudden action to get attention or impress the audience. In the presentation, I suddenly used a sound effect by my voice and that was a sound of evolution in Pokemon. Unfortunately, I was a little embarrassed, the behavior was not successful. I should have acted more professionally.

e) Use of visuals
Owing to Mai's effort, our slides were coded like ICU websites, which means using blue and white color, and we used ICU's symbol. We might have been able to use the short film for the attention getter but it is not necessary.

f) Body language: Eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and posture
I tried using body language especially I expressed a metaphor for planting seeds, bringing them up, and blossom. These were not perfect but I think it is okay. Eye contact was my bad point this time because I almost forgot about eye contact. Maybe it's because of the lack of the rehearsal.

g) Use of voice
I think I could do speech in a clear voice. As my failure, I could not use the pause effectively, I can improve that point.

Demonstrative Presentation Goals and assessment

Reflective Comment:
After the presentation, I understod that I could not control myself well while I did presentation. It's like that I was in a "automatic mode." I do not think it was a bad attitude for presentations. Because of that, however, I have to take time for preparing time because I can control my preparing time.

I guess that I did my presentation well basically but I can improve it more especially Q&A time.

Goals for Future Presentations:
- Answer the question more professionally.

- Get relax more. I want to be in a "manual moder" occasionally to control my presentation, not only in "automatic mode"

- try to emphasize important things, which means I need to improve the part of preview and review.