Presentations Lab: Storyboarding UTSC Centre for Teaching and Learning: Presentation Skills team

Today’s Agenda ▪ 1.5 hours in length ▪ We’ll explore a technique called Storyboarding to help you with your current project – Narrates a series of frames depicting what you want to say – Allows others to see the flow of your presentation By the end of this session, the goal is for you to complete a storyboard plan for your project presentation (Prezi, Powerpoint, Video, Website, etc.)

Warm-up Activity ▪ In small groups (of 2-3 students) and describe to each other what your research topic area is, and: – Share 1 or 2 things you have learned about your topic, especially something that was really surprising or interesting/enlightening Max 7 mins

4 steps Storyboarding in 4 steps 1. Brainstorm 2. Group & Identify the core ideas for your presentation 3. Apply a visual organizer 4. Create a storyboard plan 10 min 15 min25 min

What kind of perspective do you have? ▪ Explore – What might be happening? – What people are involved? In what way? ▪ Describe – What is happening? – What people are involved? In what way? ▪ Understand – Why it is happening? ▪ Explain – Why is it happening? ▪ Predict – What is likely to happen? ▪ Change – How can it be made to be different? ▪ Evaluate – What has happened? Why did it happen? ▪ Assess impacts – What have been, or are likely to be, its individual, social and environmental consequences? Why have these consequences occurred? Blaikie, N. Designing Social Research, Polity, UK.

Steps 1-2: Steps 1-2: Brainstorm & Group Core Idea (an iterative process… Do this with YOUR topic!) …Knowing “which” story to tell is half the battle! Fun example

Map out your research topic area: (consider including…) - academic concepts/theories - voices (peoples, individuals, organizations, movements) - timescales (now/before/ever, pre-colonial, personal growth) - resources (technical, corporate, scientific, power, community) - tensions (power, struggle, resistance) - difference (what has changed? how has it changed?) - affect and the non-representational (surface and reveal something that is otherwise missing from the map) Complete Steps 1-2. Decide which story to tell… 20 mins

Step 3: Step 3: Decide how best to tell the story… (apply a visual organizer) How would you tell your story? Example: ▪ CATEGORICAL – Here’s a well-curated series of themes / voices / experiences Example: ▪ HIGHLY CLIMACTIC – A cascading series, culminating in a final (or near final) expression

Step 3: Step 3: Decide how best to tell the story… (apply a visual organizer) How can you tell a compelling story? Example: ▪ UNFOLDING PROCESS – It was how it was (describe how it was). And now it is how it is (describe that too): – Capture a state of affairs; observe the evidence and traces of change / struggle / resistance over some period of time; and, try to better understand how things came to be the way they now are Don’t just describe. Explain!

Step 3: Step 3: Decide how best to tell the story… (apply a visual organizer) How would you tell any story? Example: ▪ SPATIAL / LIMINAL – Presented as a deliberate choice of one vector/direction over others – Consider: Eco Tourism, Religious pilgrimage, Adventure Tourism Example: ▪ EXPANDING RADIUS – Focused exploration across an expanding series of dimensions, e.g. My identity, vs. my identity and family life, vs. my identity in my community

Complete Step 3: Complete Step 3: Apply Visual Organizers Mix & match. Try one and see if it fits. No “best” answer. Use the worksheets. Come up with a “way” of telling your story… When in doubt, put your hand up and get some advice from our facilitators 15 mins

Step 4: Step 4: Make your own storyboarding plan ▪ At the end of the day, you need a plan! – No matter how you tell your story, it’ll be comprised of a series of “things” – these may be photographs, audio descriptions, video clips, a step in the Prezi path, witty and/or impactful text on a screen – Let’s break it down into a series of storyboards  ▪ Turn your Step 3 efforts into a storyboard… ▪ Break down by SCENE / SHOT – Shot/Purpose: articulate why this shot helps build / reveal the scene – Visual requirements (image files, videos, step in Prezi path, Powerpoint Slide, …? ) – Audio/Textual requirements (text script, audio voiceover) 25 mins

THANK-YOU! UTSC Centre for Teaching and Learning: Presentation Skills team