Presentations in Second Life

Two students delivered their PowerPoint presentations in Second Life last week using one of our many presentation areas on our island. Students stood behind the podium during the presentation. Then during the question and answer session at the end of the presentations, students stepped off the podium and walked toward the audience. This created a more engaging environment. They were very effective using voice and gestures.

Those students who didn't present in SL did participate, and their avatars teleported to the presentation area on the Owens island. As audience participants, they used text chat to ask questions at the end of the presentations. The student presenters created a more personal environment by using the other avatars' names when they were asked questions at the end.

There are some PowerPoint limitations such as animations and hyperlinks not working. However, the slide viewer is very easy to use, and it has arrows to advance the slides.

For the team project, three students plan to present in SL. My goal is to have them create a notecard for the partipants to pick up at the beginning of the presentation.

Also, I plan to invite others to listen to the presentations. We are going to try and record them using Camtasia.