13 Things Summer Reflection

Thanks for dropping in and reading along. Did this turn out to be what you expected when you started? Have you discovered anything new that could be helpful in your day-to-day activities? How did you feel about "self-discovering" as opposed to coming to a workshop (bound by time and date)?

I've enjoyed trying some technical things this summer without being in a workshop where others may catch on faster than I do. Take your time. Work at your own pace. Savor the process. Ask for help when you need it. Let the tools work for you to fill your college days with social networking.

Up the Wall?

Sometimes you may feel like you are running in circles or even running up a wall like this guy,
http://screencast.com/t/YjhiODAzNmUt
but if you stay on track and keep practicing your speech ideas, you will succeed and land on your feet.

Rockin' Robin Tweet, Tweet, Tweet!

Yes, the Speaking Center is continuing to add ways to talk with you all. Follow our twitter account (click the blue bird at the right column of this blog) and get our most recent tweets.   Stay informed of our workshops, study breaks and open houses!

RSS Feeds

Have you found yourself wasting time by searching for your favorite websites to check them daily? You can speed up the process and save time for other things by creating RSS Feeds on Google Reader or Bloglines. Simply create an account and start adding websites that have RSS feeds. Having them all in one place may encourage your reading of a daily paper, and increase your tech savvy smartness quotient.

Google Reader in Plain English

Creative Commons and Copyright

Copyright infringement is a big deal. Plagiarism is a big deal. Creating your own work is a big deal. Especially in college. If you mess up, you could fail an assignment, fail a course, or be removed from your institution.  However, Creative Commons is a new non-profit trying to help people to share and collaborate their work with others.  For example, if you are looking for a perfect image for your PowerPoint presentation, you may find a shareable image.  Check out Creative Commons, but be careful.

The Library Thing

The Speaking Center has created a booklist of good reads for the speech enthusiast.  Check out some of these books to boost your communication savvy.  The Library Thing is actually a very easy book catalogueing tool to keep track of your own reading, books you'd like to read, or recommend to others. This could be a useful tool as you develop your major and want to build your own library of resource books. I'm not sure if your professor will have one on moodle, but you could add a tab like this to your facebook site to let others know what you are reading. 

Some hints to handle nervousness from former public speaking students

The Fall 2009 public speaking students created a few videos to help future classmates as they learned to become better public speakers.



Classroom video projects are a way to embed experiential or service-learning activities into any course. Creating a video to share with others is a great way to share learning with other sections or classes.

Theories Used in Public Speaking

Pictures vs.1000 words?

When preparing visual aids for your presentation, don't overwhelm with the written word. It may be better to give a PowerPoint slideshow with a few well-chosen photos and wow the audience with well-chosen words as your narration.

On-line photo sharing is a great way to share the pictures you may need for a presentation, symposium research poster, study abroad term, or service learning project. Consider setting up a Flickr account. Instead of emailing pictures, let your audience find you. Encourage your class to set up a group to share images from a service project. This could be especially helpful for the ESL and study abroad students who want to share photos with their family and friends back home.

Persevere through the process!

The fog comes on little cat feet
Originally uploaded by ksindela

Of course, after you investigate your topic, and incubate on the ideas, you may also feel a bit foggy and scared to continue. This fog slips in quiet as a cat and you begin to doubt yourself, your topic, your outline. Persevere. This is not the time to scrap your research and start all over. This is the time to put the pedal to the metal and push through the self doubt. You may need to practice your presentation out loud at least 10 - 13 times before you begin to feel excited to give your speech. You have something important to say. The fog will lift. That cat will go away.

Nothing happens unless first a dream

Nothing happens unless first a dream
Originally uploaded by ksindela

It is a daunting task to prepare for a major presentation. "Well begun is half done," says Aristotle. Carl Sandburg encourages us to dream about the possibilities. At any rate, give yourself plenty of time to brainstorm and incubate your ideas after you research. The best ideas come when you sleep. Just ask Einstein.

Following, liking, commenting

THE Frog Hand Puppet
Originally uploaded by ksindela

"Following" is a lot like friending on facebook. If you like this blog, sign up to follow it so you can find it again later. Yes, following can be flattery for the blogger, and is a great way to social network or learn something new for you. You can stay connected to your favorite sites with conversations via commenting. Commenting continues the dialog with other readers as well as the writer. Following is important to online communities because giving feedback helps to complete the circle of communication between message sender and message receiver.

Quickie Wiki

Creating a collaborative website may be helpful when you are working on:
group presentations
service learning projects
conference research
wish lists for an event

Wikis allow for a group of people to edit one document and sidestep email.

Pro - the working document has the most recent changes
Con - only one person can edit at a time, so you can't procrastinate until the night before on a group project.

Time management is a must

Wikis in Plain English

Google Docs & Calendar for Dummies

Google Docs
1. Login to Coe Gmail
2. Look in the upper left-hand corner of your gmail page. You'll see a link to "Documents"
3. From here, you can upload a document you already have or create a new one
4. Also works for spreadsheets or PowerPoint

Google Calendar - this is pretty intuitive.
1. Login to Coe Gmail
2. Look in the upper left-hand corner for the tab "calendar"
3. You can select a day and add events at your leisure.

I use google calendar to keep multiple calendars going. I have four school calendars: Coe, Mt. Mercy, Luther, and Jefferson High School. I color code the events so my family knows which is important to them and we don't overbook ourselves. It is especially helpful when looking at concerts, conventions, athletic events, and finals.

Google Docs in Plain English

Ipods and laptops and cells, oh my!

The Social Media Revolution is here. What is the best way to communicate at college? with your family? at work?

I prefer face to face interaction most of the time. I know I get the message; if I have questions I can ask and have immediate clarification and I can be sure that my reply is received.

I get frustrated with conference calls because it is hard to know who is talking without the visual cues. I don't like Skype because I have to make sure I look okay before I make a call...or answer. I can't always hear on my cell phone, and when I press speaker phone, everyone around me is a part of my conversation - whether they want to be or not. My cellphone dies, and when I finally charge it I don't check my voicemails. I don't check my facebook or email often enough to be in the loop either. In this instant information age, I fail terribly at being instant with MY information.

Music. Don't get me started on music... No. I don't use 8 track tapes, cassette tapes, vinyl or CDs. I do like to listen to the radio via my laptop or the car stereo. It seems like a good idea to carry my MP3 to work out, but I never seem to have it with me. Same with kindle. I've downloaded kindle books to my laptop, but have never read them. Even though I love the idea of these gadgets, it may be the lack of time that gets in the way. I'd prefer to chat at Brewed Awakenings or the Speaking Center instead.

Did You Know - Future Technology Video

13 Things at Coe

This blog has been set up as part of Coe's Learning 2.0 project, 13 Things @ Coe, to encourage the Coe community to experiment and learn about new and emerging technologies. The Speaking Center will explore Wed 2.0 and other new technologies for the benefit of Coe's students, staff and faculty.