Frack

For me visual aids are tricky. Visuals are always tricky. A computer screen bursting with graphics throws my head into an ADHD induced panic. It is safe to say I get distracted very easily; however, this speech gave me the opportunity to try to conquer these-- oh look Facebook-- distractions.

My first visual aid was a short video. Between my friends and I, the video was hilarious. We made it in the New North bathroom, and I got socked with about 20 water bottles. However, watching the video in a classroom setting was a different experience. The video was not received as well, as I would have liked. In addition, the video might have lead to confusion on the purpose of the topic. Was the video meant to swap perspectives to that of an aquatic animal? Or was the video meant to show the perspective of how water bottles do effect human's health and cleanliness as well? However, I tried to alleviate the confusion by introducing the video with a story. The story was about my father's trip to the Cayman islands, and the thousands of water bottles he saw one particular remote island.

Since visuals general keep me in a dizzy, I wanted to keep the pictures to a minimum and the words to a few per slide. This allowed the audience and I to create a visual road map of where the conversation was headed. In addition, I wanted to keep only three bullets on each page. This would allow me to explain each process, rather than read them off the board. In this regard, I believe my visuals were effective, short, simple, and poignant.

However, near the end I was rushed on time. I said a fact incorrectly, and cited my source inaccurately. This comes down to my time management and the time allotted for working with the visuals. I didn't realize that transitioning between visuals would eat up 30 seconds of my overall time. But, it did not mess up the whole speech :). In the end I though it was a pretty good knack at my first real visual aided speech!