Chances are as a student, you have had to sit through an entire period of one person after another giving a presentation while the other 25+ are sitting there not engaged. It is nice for the first few presentations, but can drag on from the students perspective even if they are taking notes on the other persons presentation. When students are ACTIVELY engaged, they learn, grow, and have fun!
This year, I tried a new strategy for class presentations in several of my business classes. Instead of each student presenting their project to the whole class, they were forced to present it in a "speed networking/sharing session." Lets say you have the students create a poster, PowerPoint, or video about a famous entrepreneur. On their computer or laptop, they pull-up their project. You then split the class in half and give them a number of one or two. The ones set-up around the room at various locations. The twos are then students who walk around and learn from the ones in a speed presentation fashion.
All twos need to be in front of a one before we start. The ones have 1-2 minutes to teach and tell the twos all about their person through the project they created. After 2 minutes, I blow a whistle and the twos rotate clockwise while the ones stay put. The ones present their topic/project at least eight times before the roles are reversed.
This forces the students to:
- Master their content and present it in a creative way
- Practice their verbal and non-verbal skills over and over
- Listen and ask meaningful questions
- Develop a sense of community and network
As students are presenting, I casually walk around the room and listen asking questions and giving feedback where necessary.
After conducting this type of presentation over the ones where students stand in-front of the entire class, 100% of my students said they preferred the "speed presentations" over the "individual entire class presentations." The engagement level is through the roof and the students gain a ton of confidence about themselves because they practice over and over. If you are looking for a creative way to FLIP class presentations, give it a try. You won't be disappointed!
