The slides were the easiest part. I so not like speaking for a required time frame so I struggled with that part. Next time I wouldn’t wait till the last day to complete the assignment, my newborn was very demanding and I didn’t give the assignment all that I should have. A lesson learned is to always keep your audience in mind!

PowerPoint and VoiceThread

Over all I had a lot of fun with the PowerPoint presentation. Uploading it to VoiceThread and adding the narration was easy although I wasn't completely pleased with the visual quality. I didn't have any experience with VoiceThread before this project and I always like learning something new. 

My project used a lot of graphics with very little text and I think that worked well in PowerPoint. The visuals carry the point while the notes (and narration in VoiceThread) round out the meaning. However the quality of the graphics noticeable degraded after uploading to VoiceThread. I also had to go back and edit my PowerPoint to get some graphics to show up and upload it again. Even then a few graphics still didn't display correctly. 

Next time if I'm planning to upload to VoiceThread I'll prepare my Power Point with that goal in mind. Instead of creating the Power Point I wanted and then having to adapt it to VoiceThread. I think the number of slides and the information on the slides would depend on whether I was going to use VoiceThread to present it.  

Something I'll use in my career is learning about the large library of graphics in MS Office. Also I learned about the importance of using visuals to keep the audience's attention. This will be useful in the accounting field as slide after slide of numbers and balances can get very boring in a presentation.

What I've learned so far in Bus 140

Stay focused and have a plan. This is valuable advice that can be applied to many aspects of life in general. And very useful when composing business messages in particular. I tend to overthink what I want to say when writing a message. Sometimes my brain goes into overdrive and I'll say in three sentences what can easily be said in one. The instructions in these chapters have helped me learn to simply state what needs to be said. To find my point and stick to it.

This will be useful in my career as it's much easier to understand a message that is brief and concise. I've also find it useful in my personal life as well. No more hinting, or elaborating, or expecting my husband to read my mind (I've never understood why he completely fails at that.) Now I just straight out tell him, the trash can is full so take out the trash. Please. Mustn't forget to be courteous as instructed in Chapter 7.

The least valuable thing I've learned? Hmmm . . . Joining Twitter was fun. But, I haven't once thought about checking my Twitter account since that assignment. Maybe if I used Twitter for my job I'd find it more valuable.

In closing, I've enjoyed this class. I feel I have a better appreciation for the necessity of good business communications. It's not just about the importance of getting the job done right. Effective communication also acknowledges the humanity of the people we work with. This is good for business. And the makes the world a nicer place.