INTE 6710 ~ Creative Designs for Instructional Materials Project 3: Stand-Alone Presentation Design Document

Dawn Turek November 20, 2011

1. Significant Purpose
Trash is a major environmental pollutant, with many types taking hundreds of years to properly decompose when thrown away. I want to inform the viewer more about the facts about trash and some tips for ways of reducing your garbage, recycling it and helping the environment. We put out an amazing amount of trash and waste. Some products take years to decompose such as "disposable" diapers which take 550 years and an aluminum cans which take between 200-500 years. Lets not forget about the evil Styrofoam and plastic containers which take one million years to fully decompose. On the other end of the scale we have waste that is often recyclable or reusable but also doesn't take as much time to decompose such as a wool sock which takes one year and a paper bag which takes one month to decompose. This problem effects everyone and our future generations. It is not going away and the amount we are doing now is not enough! Without extreme action we will not see much results. We will trash this planet and not be able to raise future generation here if the rate continues. Estimates suggest that up to 90% of the contents of our bins could actually be reused or recycled. Take a look at your trash can. What did you not need to use, can you use again or what can be recycled. Be conscious of what you are throwing away and using on a daily basis. Don't use Styrofoam or disposable diapers. I know easier said than done. Being a mother of a about to be two children in diapers it is really hard to not use diapers. But there are alternatives. There are many alternative to disposable diapers that are better for the environment. as far as Styrofoam bring a cup with you to places you know only use Styrofoam. Did you know that in some states like California Styrofoam is banned? I think we in Colorado should follow this trend! A large amount of garbage is either incinerated or buried in landfills. About a quarter is currently recycled, but if we were more careful and spent time sorting and separating different types of materials, we could significantly increase our recycling abilities. For food scraps and yard waste try a compost pile, they have many nice compost pails and tumblers on the market for you to choose from. Pick one that works best for you. Find out what recycling programs are in your area and what they take. Here in Denver we have a fairly good recycling program that takes Plastics (with in guidelines),
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Corrugated Cardboard, Paperboard, Glass Bottles & Jars, Steel Cans & Aerosol Cans, Office Paper & Junk Mail, Newspaper, Magazines & Catalogs, Aluminum Cans, Foil & Pie Plates, phone books, and paper bags. Many people have a vague idea of how much we waste and try in small amounts to do their part. But with a little more facts and knowledge of the subject they will hopefully know A lot more about waste and try even harder to do their part! I will show charts and facts about waste growth and disposal. I will also show what can be recycled and reused and describe more ways we can help reduce the amount of waste put out. The facts are shocking and unreal but if we all are more informed we can help by using compost buckets for food and some paper waste, recycling and reusing many products. I will inform the viewer/learner on what items can be used again or recycled and what products to avoid all together. With this knowledge we can all help our planet from becoming a trash dump.

2. A Picture of the Future

I picture a future where trash is reduced to minimal amounts. Where the whole world bans items that are not decomposable or that wont decompose for millions of years. I picture all household using compost and reducing the amount or food and yard waste in our landfills. Do you recycle? Does your community have a recycling program? If not make it happen. Many items can be recycled. I will inform the viewer learner of all the items that can be recycled with text and pictures to help them along. With this presentation I hope to get people more aware of the waste they produce. By becoming aware they can do there best to reduce the amount of waste and reuse, and recycle. Even creating personal bans and not using products that don't decompose fast will help future generations. By reusing items such as plastics and paper bags and even better switching to reusable cloth bags. Did you know that between Thanksgiving and the New Year, Americans throw up to 25% more trash, amounting to a massive five million tons extra. Of this, about four millions tons is believed to be made up of wrapping paper and shopping bags. Why create all this trash!? Re-Use newspaper comics or brown paper bags to wrap your gifts! Decorate them with a child's drawing or your own create coloring!? Many people do not use compost pails or tumblers. Some do not even know what they are. The process of composting requires simply piling up waste outdoors and waiting for the materials to break down from anywhere between 6 weeks or more. Through my presentation they will learn about this awesome alternative to throwing food and yard waste in the trash. Not only
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do you save from throwing it all away but you can then use the compost in your gardening to provide beneficial nutrients to your outdoor plants, trees and gardens. Benefits of compost include soil conditioner, a fertilizer, addition of vital humus or humic acids, and as a natural pesticide for soil. Learning Objective Learners will become more aware of the problem with trash. Learners will have a better idea of how they can reduce the amount they throw away. Learners will know which items can be recycled and some fun ways of doing it. Measurable Outcome Learners will be aware of what they throw away and where it goes when they do. Learners will know some creative and easy ways to reduce the amount they throw away. Learners will know what can be recycled and how they can avoid things that cant be recycled.

3. Clear Design Values

Design Decision #1. Simplicity is my first design decision. I thought of tag lines and quotes to get this presentation started but then I realized that someone has already done that. Someone created the three R's. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. I did need to find the core it was already out there. This statement says it all in a nutshell. Its straight to the point and simple. "Finding the core" (Heath & Heath, 2008, p. 29). I also incorporated simple into my theme. I used a monochromatic color scheme which features only one color in different shades. "This is a very effective way to create harmony since using the same hue gives your slides an overall unified, professional look." (Reynolds, 2009, pg. 73) Design Decision #2. Presentation Flow was important to me. In using a new program to me Prezi and a lot of information I wanted to make sure all the information flow well together and I didn't want my learners to "have to think at all, which means you need to answer every potential question at the exactly right place" (Reynolds, 2009, p. 56) I wanted the learner to flow nicely through the presentation at his/her own pace and not to do multitasking which we have read really is hard to do in the world of learning. Multitasking in the way of looking at my presentation and thinking about the why's and what's. I hope I am answering those within presentation so again the learner doesn't get sidetrack thinking off track. "The Brain is a sequential processor, unable to pay attention to two things at the same time." (Medina, 2008, p.93)

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Design Decision #3. Emotion is another design decision I included. This is an important topic that effects our life's. Sadly many people do not see it happening directly to them so they do not care. For this reason I included pictures of animals and children. Most people think of animals and or children and tend to get more emotional than with a picture of a trash can. "The standard antilitter message is emotional...also appeals to our feelings for cuddly wildlife..." (Heath & Heath, 2008, p. 196). I also achieved an emotional connection by choosing to use the color green as my background. By choosing green I have created a "natural, balance, harmony, the environment, earth, ..." feeling and emotion to my presentation. (Reynolds, 2009, p. 79) Design Decision #4. Using a lot of images was a design decision of mine. With a topic that can be very wordy and lengthy I wanted to keep the viewer engaged and entertain with many visuals. "...images have a unique power not just to convey information, but also to build unity and consensus around that information to promote action and decision making..." (Reynolds, 2009, p.95) Vision is a sense used more than any other sense as said multiple times in this course by many different people. I wanted to tap into that sense by having my presentation mostly of visuals including pictures and a few graphs. By using pictures information is better retain and placed into memory. "the more visual the input becomes, the more likely it is to be recognized-and recalled...the pictorial superiority effect, or PSE." (Medina, 2008, p.233) Design Decision #5. I paid close attention to spacing of text , images, and edges. I tried to leave an invisible frame along the edges of each slide. Also making sure the text did not get too close to either the edge or the pictures. I decided not to fill the frame with picture but instead placing picture next to the text. Leaving everything with room to breathe. "A consistent boarder acts as protection around the photographic element. White (or in this case green) is clean and dramatic". (Reynolds, 2009, p.167) With paying attention to spacing brings me back to simplicity. By keeping a space between items in a slide it creates a balance and simple ness to the presentation. Keeping the messages compact. "Our messages have to be compact, because we can learn and remember only so much information at once". (Heath & Heath, 2008, p.51) Design Decision #6. Concrete. I used this idea in that my subject has a lot of concrete evidence and material which can help people understand the subject matter "Concrete ideas are easier to remember" (Heath & Heath, 2008, p.106) My presentation is full of concrete words and images that people can remember. To help explain some of the concrete evidence of this topic I used line graphs. "Line graphs are good at showing trends over time. Use a line

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graph if the x-axis is an interval scale such as days, weeks, or months". (Reynolds, 2009, p. 141) Design Decision #7. "Learn to love constraints" (Reynolds, 2009, p. 174) With so much information out there on this subject I had to be conscious of how much information I was giving the learner. I did not want to overwhelm the learners with so many facts and statistics that they are bored or overwhelmed therefore losing interest. "we all know this, but still we battle with the unnecessary". Also comes to mind is "the curse of knowledge" (Heath & Heath, 2008, p.20) Since I have researched this topic extensively I also wanted to be careful not to leave out information that is important that I may assume everyone already know because I know it. So this was a balance act of giving just the right amount of information. "People are tempted to tell you everything, with perfect accuracy, right up front, when they should be giving you just enough info to be useful..." (Heath & Heath, 2008, p. 57). Design Decision #8. Attention please. I wanted to get people attention so I used many pictures that would hopefully stand out in the learners mind. Whether its attention to the animals and children or attention to the massive piles of trash that are in landfills. The landfill pictures are quite unreal and got my attention to do this project. My curiosity of the subject of landfills is what got me going. I had never seen a landfill only heard of them. By viewing these pictures I want the learner to feel what I feel and want to know more. "If curiosity arise from knowledge gaps, we might assume that when we know more, we become less curious because there are fewer gaps in our knowledge. But Loewenstein argues that the opposite is true. He says that as we gain information we are more and more likely to focus on what we don't know." (Heath & Heath, 2008, p.89) I hope to create attention by the learners interest in the information and topic I am presenting. "...novel stimuli-the unusual, unpredictable, or distinctive-are powerful ways to harness attention in the service of interest." I added the unbelievable pictures of landfills along with unusual such as the man in a newspaper dress. These pictures are interesting and provoke the learner to find out more!

4. Formative Evaluation Response

Peer Review Question #1. Does the presentation 'flow' well or is it well organized? Please explain why or why not and if not what parts should I fix or work on? I asked this question because it was my first time using Prezi and it seems kind of chaotic when creating the presentation. So I wanted to make sure that the presentation was easy to flow and made sense chronologically.
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Cindy answered with "It was very easy for me to follow. I like the way Prezi transitions the slides, giving the viewer the ability to zoom in and out". Jason said "I like Prezi but the big question I had was whether or not its better to be able to click through a presentation or to have it play out automatically. In the case of you presentation I liked being able to click through at my own pace, so in that regard I think it flows well. You dive right in at the beginning but you may want to consider one guiding paragraph at the beginning that kind of outlines what your presentation is about, it might make it a bit more clear". Overall my reviews thought the presentation had a nice flow and like the ability to click through at thier own pace. As for Jason idea to make an intro paragraph I decided against it because I believe the words Reduce, reuse, and recycle are enough and I wanted to keep the big chucks of text to a minimum. Peer Review Question #2. As always I am a bad speller and typist so PLEASE tell me of any spelling or grammar errors you see. Prezi had no spell check that I could see. I have trouble seeing my own grammar, punctuation and spelling errors. So it is always nice to have a couple more eyes look at it. Prezi did not have a spell check that I found? Cindy replied with "I didnt catch and spelling, just a few missing periods". Jason answered with "In the slide that's says "Did you notice the cup" you have a exclamation point and question mark together. In the slide that says "You can then use the compost in your gardening" I think it should say garden. Get rid of "a" in front of fertilizer. Some people may not know what a soil conditioner is or how it is different than fertilizer. There needs to be a space between "component" and "of" in that slide that begins with "Organic materials". Reduce is spelled wrong in the slide that begins "Another way to". You need an "a" in front of "LONG". That leak into our water not drinks. One person's trash IS another person's treasure". Cindy did not see any mistakes and I fixed all the things Jason saw and recommended. Peer Review Question #3. Do all the pictures go well with information discussed? Any that needs to be changed? If I had more time and I wasn't with child and having a two year old I would have driven around and taken my own pictures. But with these obstacles I unfortunately had to take them from flickr.com so I wanted to make sure the picture made sense with what I was talking about. In some cases the picture I pictured in my head could not be found on flickr.com so I settled for one that was the closest fit. Cindy said "You had some very compelling images that spoke for themselves. The slide with the deer had a little too much content in comparison to the rest of your presentation. I might keep the content about the deer with that image and make a new slide for the content which begins talking about discarded food". Jason replied with "The text on some of the charts is small and I found it tough to read. The Be Creative slides could use a little more explanation, explain that you can create arts and crafts from trash but you need to be concerned about sanitation. You might want to explain the slide with the three different recycling bins, just some supporting text. All the other images seem to fit very well". I have taken all recommendations and changed them adding text where
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Jason thought it may be helpful and making the deer slide into two slides as Cindy recommended. Peer Review Question #4. Is there anything you feel that I left out or that I could talk about more? There are about 45 slides but I feel as if I left something out. With such an extensive subject and so many direction it could go I wanted to make sure that I covered the basics and didn't leave anything of importance out. Cindy answered with "You did a great job of covering this important issue. Some of the text got a little lengthy. The presentation might have moved a little better if you could condense some of the content to the most important ideas". Jason said "There are so many positives to using the three R's, maybe focus on some of those, such as keeping your favorite open space areas free of garbage, the sense of community that is built around taking care of your neighborhood. Find more ways to appeal to the emotional aspect of this information, ask the viewers about their favorite places and how they would feel if those places were covered with trash". I tried to shorten a few lengthy text areas. As far as adding more slides regarding open spaces etc. Great Idea! I tried to do a quick search for pictures to use for this but they were hard to come by and with a minimal amount of time I couldn't get into this. Peer Review Question #5. Is the presentation interesting and memorable? I realize it is an old topic but it still needs to be addressed! That is why I chose to make it in Prezi instead of a power point. But how else can I make it more exciting and memorable? I chose to use prezi because the subject matter may get a little dull with just a power point. Also wanted the viewer to be able to click at their own speed and zoom in when necessary. I asked this question to make sure the subject didn't bore anyone. Cindy said "Prezi makes a presentation such as this very engaging. The school I teach at has become a Green school and my kids would love some of your images. It is an old topic but one that needs to be revisited often. The only other suggestion I have is with the background color. I cant remember how that works in Prezi, but if you can change the background to a color other than white, it might add to the design. I wouldnt want something that jumps out at the viewer but maybe something like a subtle green. If nothing seems quite right, than I would stay with white". Jason said "Can you do music on Prezi? This presentation would go great with music, it has such an emotional appeal and music can really deliver that human element. Also, many people may not know that you can pan in and out with Prezi to see the big picture. When you pan out your image is random, maybe when you pan out your presentation could show a an exclamation point or something, use this tool to create an image". Great ideas! I was limited by Prezi in that I could not add music however I did take Cindy's idea and changed my background color to green!

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Bibliography
Heath, C., & Heath, D. (2008). Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Die and Others Survive. New York: Random House. Medina, J. (2008). Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. Seattle, WA: Pear Press. Reynolds, G. (2009). Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations. Berkeley, CA: New Riders.

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