OC Chapter Learning Event: Visual Communication for Trainers

  • 09/28/2011
  • 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
  • DoubleTree Club Hotel, 7 Hutton Centre Dr., Santa Ana, CA

Registration

  • For registrations after earlybird pricing ends and walkins. Members can only register other members under the same registration. If you want to register a different member type, please start another registration.
  • Register by noon on the Monday before the meeting to receive the early registration rate. NOTE: Members can only register other members under the same registration. If you want to register a different member type, please start another registration.
  • For registrations after earlybird pricing ends and walkins. Non-members can only register other non-members under the same registration. If you want to register a different member type, please start another registration.
  • Early registration rate ends at midnight the Tuesday before the meeting. Non-members can only register other non-members under the same registration. If you want to register a different member type, please start another registration.
  • For registrations after earlybird pricing ends and walkins. Students can only register other Students under the same registration. If you want to register a different member type, please start another registration.
  • Early registration rate ends at midnight the Tuesday before the meeting. NOTE: Students can only register other Students under the same registration. If you want to register a different member type, please start another registration.

Pre-registration is now closed, but we welcome walkins at the door.

Customary presentation media used by trainers has changed dramatically in the last 20 years from whiteboards and flipcharts to 35mm slide projections and “overheads” to PowerPoint slide decks that incorporate multi-media. As with many examples of technology, we end up embracing a feature-rich medium that offers too many choices and a huge opportunity to make a mess of it--all because we lost sight of what our goals were in the first place. An illustration of this paradox is the cellphone carrier that is known for spotty service and dropped calls, but heavily promotes its features-rich smartphone. You must admit that the phone does cool things, but does it reliably deliver on its primary function?

Are our visual presentations enhancing learning transfer or are they a detraction? If you are using PowerPoint like word-processing software or as a teleprompter, the answer is probably “no”. Your presentation deck should be crafted to do what the medium does best for your audience: Support your talks with graphic information that illustrates your ideas. Think of your PowerPoint as the photos or drawings in a book, not the columns of text that surround it. If this sounds like an un-natural proposition, you are not alone. Look at it from this perspective: How many writing classes have you taken in your lifetime? Three? Four? How many graphic design classes? My point exactly. So can we really be blamed if we want to load that frame up with all that important stuff punctuated by a tiny little piece of clipart in the corner?

Garr Reynolds’s book “Presentation Zen” will get you to slow down and make you think about how to use this visual medium; Cliff Atkinson’s book “Beyond Bullet Points” will shape you up about organizing your message particularly when using PowerPoint and Nancy Duarte is the powerhitter in the field of presentation design and offers a high-concept, high-style textbook on design theory for presenters in her book, “Slide:ology.”

Today’s presentation is a quick-start lesson that fills the gap left by these authors and begin to build your visual literacy skills in the areas of color selection, utilization of space, image selection and typography, enabling you to significantly improve your visual communication skills and learning transfer.

Learning Outcomes


  1. Attendees will gain the knowledge to effectively select color themes based on the tone of their message and appropriately apply it to their presentation slides.

 

  1. Using established principles of color theory, participants will be able to effectively implement any one of three color palatte selection strategies for use in their next PowerPoint presentation.

 

  1. Using established principles of good design, attendees be able to construct at least three visually pleasing slide layouts without the aid of a slide template.

 

  1. Participants will learn the fundamentals of how to legally (and ethically!) source intellectual property in the form of digital photography and artwork that is readily available on the internet; how to source images in the public domain; learn the esthetics used to evaluate, select, manipulate and display quality images that best illustrate the speaker’s message.

 

  1. Attendees will learn the key considerations necessary to select the correct size, styles and quantity of text/typography to maximize clarity and visual impact.

Linda Ackerman--an avowed visual learner--has enjoyed a lengthy career in the learning and development field, working primarily in industries that attract and employ visual learners. While her bachelor’s degree is in design, she spent two years completing the required curriculum for the fine arts degree at UCLA that included classes in fine art photography, photo hand-coloring and illustration.

Her art studies began at the tender age of eight when her grandmother--herself a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago--nurtured Linda’s love of art. Early instruction included the a foundation in color theory, requiring her to go to the paint store to gather paint chips to organize the individual colors by hue, value and chroma into a spiral notebook replicating Albert Henry Munsell’s pioneering method to “describe color in a rational [three-dimensional] way.” (Color had previously only been described using descriptive words such as "pale pink.") This was, no doubt, a challenging curriculum for an eight year-old, yet proved to be a breeze when presented again during her second year of college!

An avid learner of foreign languages (she’s studied five!), Linda speaks the visual languages of art and design fluently and enjoys sharing that knowledge with those who rely on visual media to inform, persuade and instruct.

Find out more on Linda's blogs:

http://www.squidoo.com/visual-literacy-for-learning

http://vizcom4presenters.blogspot.com/


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