Tech Tuesday: Dive into Digital with Personality

[heather_halter]

Macmillan’s first edition public speaking text, Speech Craft, has a personality of its own. Fittingly, its corresponding LaunchPad reflects that personality, as the book’s author, Joshua Gunn helped develop several of the activities for it! As your Learning Solutions Specialist for Communication, let me walk you through these features as unique as the author himself.

One of the most exciting New LaunchPad feature are Digital Dives, written by Joshua Gunn himself. Students often struggle to apply what they read to their actual presentations.  These were designed to help with that. Each chapter (except for chapter 12) engages students in topics at a deeper level through the use of podcasts, videos, and critical thinking questions, ranging from speeches given in the real world to real student speeches. They also promote Community Building by engaging students to think about the audience as a community.

An example of a speech from the real world can be found in Chapter 9, on Style and Language. It focuses on the use Repetition and Rhythm, and asks students to first read the transcript of a eulogy given by Barack Obama and then watch a video of it. What students take away from this is that while writing repetition into a speech seems silly or pointless, seeing and hearing that repetition (and the rhythm of it – the way in which its repeated) helps students to realize it’s importance and impact. 

Chapter 11 on Presentation Aids looks at understanding the slide in a classroom speech. Students get to looks at its role in a speech - which is meant to enhance your presentation, not give it for you or distract from it. See sample screenshots below:

  

Clearly, one of these is great, the other…not so much. So, students are asked the Questions: Which speaker presented their slide show more effectively? How could each speaker improve his or her delivery? 

      The author has also left his mark on our new sample speeches. The Car Cookery full length Informative Speech is actually a speech he presented, and in LaunchPad it is delivered by a student. And, we can’t forget about the instructors. Joshua helped design the chapter slides, and the instructor resource manual was written by Joshua’s mentor, Laura Sells.

      Of course, the LaunchPad also contains all the other great LP content you’ve come to expect from Macmillan, including an ebook, outlining tools, LearningCurve Adaptive quizzing, and our new Video Assessment Program – Powered by GoReact.   

      If you’d like to learn more or get assistance setting up your LaunchPad course space, sign up for a demo with your LSS Specialist: http://www.macmillanhighered.com/Catalog/support.aspx