You will give a 5 minute oral presentation in which you summarizes the work and findings laid out in your final digital narrative/blog post. This is your chance to share what you have been working on and learning throughout the semester with your classmates and professor. For your reference, here are some “Tips for Conducting an Oral Presentation,” provided by University of New Hampshire.

Assignment Details

  • You will have five oppertunities to give your oral presentation. Sign up with the link in Slack for the presentation slot (listed below) that works best for you. All students are expected to come to class on 4/26 and 4/29, regardless of if they are giving their presentation, as other content and assignments will continue to take place. However, students who have already presented on 4/26 or 4/29 do not need to attend on exam day. Students who present on 5/2 (during the exam period) need only to come on exam day for the time slot for which they have signed up.
    • Friday 4/26, 11-11:50am (In Class)
    • Monday 4/29, 11-11:50am (In Class)
    • Thursday 5/2, 11:30-12:30pm (Exam Period)
    • Thursday 5/2, 12:30-1:30pm (Exam Period)
    • Thursday 5/2, 1:30-2:30pm (Exam Period)
  • Length: You will have a short 5 minutes to give this presentation. This means you will have to be clear and concise. Practice giving your presentation beforehand and time yourself. Going much under or over 5 minutes will result in deducted points. On presentation day, I will signal when you have 1 minute remaining.
  • Organization: Much the same as a paper you would write, your presentation should have a beginning (introduction), middle (content/examples), and end (conclusion). Since you only have 5 minutes, the introduction and conclusion should be short but clear.
  • Content: Your presentation should summarize and share the content of your final digital narrative/blog post. Be sure to include:
    • What is your early American history topic and why did you choose it?
    • Give listeners some brief historical background about your topic.
    • What types of primary sources have you relied on? Give/show examples.
    • What have you learned about your topic that was most interesting or surprising?
    • What four digital tools/methods did you choose to use for you final essay?
    • Explain/show/demonstrate at least 2 different tools/methods/visualizations, as examples of your digital history work. (For this presentation, “mapping” counts as one method. So don’t just show us your georectified map and ArcGIS data point layer and think that you are done.) Briefly discuss your 2 tools/methods/visualizations. For example: What is it? (map, timeline, dataset, etc.) What primary source(s) did you use to create it? (LOC map, historical newspapers from X location, etc.) What variables did you include/create?
    • Finally, explain how the tool/method/visualization helped you know more about your early American history topic and/or makes it easier for you and others to understand that topic. Point out what viewers should learn/know after viewing your materials. Explain any patterns or trends the viewer should be seeing. Make it clear how the digital tools and methods have shaped your learning about your topic.
  • Visualizations: Since you will be discussing the primary sources, digital tools and visualizations you used in your final project, it is expected that you will show some of this visual material to the class in order to enhance your oral presentation. This can be as simple as showing the images and visualizations that are already embedded in your blog post, or as elaborate as creating a separate Powerpoint type presentation. Just keep in mind that this is a short presentation; don’t overdo it with the amount of visual content you want to show. Any visuals you plan to use (URL of your blog post, Google Slides link, Powerpoint file, etc.) must be submitted to Canvas 15 minutes before your presentation slot so that the instructor can organize the visuals based on presentation order.