So, I was thinking that I should drift a little bit to my personal life and talk a little bit about my public speaking skills which seem to be severely lacking. Of course, this idea came to me in the shower like most of my better (or worse??) ideas do.
About 3 to 4 weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to become a Teaching Assistant (TA) for the Computer Science Department (CSE) for the entry level course that teaches students Java (The programming language distributed by SUN). I went through the interview fine and was asked to give a 10 minute presentation/lecture on what a Constructor is at the level a CSE115 (entry level course) student.
I didn’t know too much about the constructor other than it is the part of a class that instantiates that class. I went into that lecture knowing a lot about the constructor but I did not rehearse anything. I also know what I expect out of public speakers as an active listener, therefore, I went in with no power point and rather wanted to just experiment in the Java compiler and explain what everything was line by line from real code. I wrote a bunch of partial examples in Java prior to my presentation to make sure that I would be prompted to not miss anything important. Although I doubt I missed anything important, I know that I definitely did not explain anything well. I would have done much better just reading off a slide and a note sheet (which I hate when public speakers do).
Not getting the position, I began exploring my options to become a better speaker. I saw 4 advisors shortly after that presentation and started seeking options to better myself at presenting. I know that I prepare my material well, I just suck at presenting it! As a result, I will be finding out more information on Toastmasters here at my University, and I will also be taking a public speaking class next semester that is based on practice. Since public speaking is a life skill that I don’t have, I NEED TO ACQUIRE IT!
Other suggestions about public speaking that I have acquired are, find an empty class room and a few friends (perhaps 1 to 2 friends) and practice with them. In addition, practice to a camcorder for a while and get used to the setting. These are both excellent options that I am now exploring and I may post a video or two that seem semi presentable. I feel that the more I do it, the more I will get better.
In addition, next semester, I plan on giving a lecture series for the Undergraduate computer science club here at UB (Univ at Buffalo). My lecture series will give me hands on practice at presenting how to make effective use of the webspace our University provides students with, and I will focus it more towards all majors instead of computer scientists who already understand how to use their webspace and program on it. I am a bad designer, but this may help me learn more about design also when I give a short lecture on how to use Photoshop.
So those are the steps that I currently am taking to become a more effective public speaker. I hope that doing this will help get the nervousness completely out of me so that I can then focus on presenting information as well as I do with a 1 on 1 conversation with someone who comes and asks me for help more privately.
One last comment, I must say that pre-made videos DON’T WORK! If you noticed, I posted my probability final project (http://famousphil.com/schoolarchive/EAS305PROJECTSP09.wmv) to my website the other day. I worked for a long time to make a transcript and do a complete screencast on the random number generator in probability. The professor was looking for a 20 minute presentation to be given in 5 minutes or less. I know how bad of a public speaker I currently am, so I made this video with John. We both did very well in the class, but I was required to quickly skim over the video and talk about it on my own. This didn’t go too well since I found myself contradicting stuff that was on the slide behind me. If it wasn’t for the material and time put into it, I’m sure I would have done worse on that presentation. I hope that in the future, I can do something that clean and precise without needing to pre-record it all!
Thanks for reading as always, and I will probably create a followup blog sometime later this year! Comments are appreciated!
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Tags: computer science, constructor, cse, java, lecture, lecture series, presentation, public speaking, random numbers, university at buffalo
Posted in Personal, Student Life, Uncategorized
Nice post. I read once that 80% of Americans would rather die than speak publicly. When I was thrown into a room full of high-ranking members of my organization and asked to speak repeatedly on various subjects (at different times), I lost that fear. I’d say you’ll get better with practice just as you state you are going to do. You’ll probably be required to give a speech or presentation at some point in your IT career.