Empathetic, naked and message cleared

I do not use PowerPoint often in my classroom teaching. However, Powerpoint is great when used to create a *short* multimedia presentation that goes alongside the lectures. I find it very helpful in teaching of those vocabulary that are hardly explained in words. For example, in the Chapter of traditional Chinese festivals and its food, there are different Chinese dumplings for the particular festival; Each kind of dumpling has its unique name in Mandarin, but they are all same in English-'dumpling'. In order to show students the differences among them, I created a PowerPoint for it.

The concept of " Presentation Zen" is being introduced into our third course. I love it !

Empathy is one of the six aptitudes in good presentation.

" -the ability to put presenter in the position of the user, the customer, or the audience member...,
-incapable of understanding how anyone could possibly be confused by her explanation of the data is lack of empathy...
-The empathetic presenter can make adjustments based on his reading of this particular audience. " From Design to meaning


-"Be present in the moment. Right here right now. Do not be occupied with thoughts of the future, of thoughts concerning what the results of your presentation might lead to. Do not ask about origins and ends leaving the moment forgotten. When you are with your audience, all that matters is that moment."
-Keep it simple. All of it. Simple goals, clear messages, and moderation in length.
Naked Presentation


These words are great enlightenment in my teaching. I start to reflect on the PPTs I made before.


BEFORE. Above (left) is the original slide. The problem with the slide on the left is that there are 4 images squeezed into one slide with the words, phrases and sentences on top; I was too greedy in delivering too much information at once, I was occupied with the thoughts of the future rather than be present in the moment; The text is difficult to read. And students can hardly match each of the food images with the corresponding Chinese phrase. Obviously I am not an empathetic teacher.

The slide on the right (above) was an effort to display the same information in separated slides with much less words attached. For the sack of clarity, the visual displays only one dumpling per slide. Also, the Chinese phrases are made short and clear. " Keep it simple. All of it. Simple goals, clear messages, ...."