Explanatory Video - Visual Explanation

Just published new explanatory video on critical thinking.

Video Zen

I’ve developed a bit of a fascination with online explanatory and informational videos lately and so decided to create a page devoted to that – a page I’m calling Video Zen. Most recently, Xplane has put out a couple of video presentations that are getting a lot of attention, The Carbon Economy and Did You Know 4.0. Engaging + informative.

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New Explanatory Videos

Finally had a chance to finish up some explanatory videos I've had in the works for awhile.

First up, Sending Large Files Screencast - an explanatory video on how to send large files like videos to someone when your email provider won't allow large attachments.

Next, years ago I made a Flash animation showing how hydrogen fuel cells work. I've since lost the original files I used to create it, but I've wanted to convert it to video to put up on YouTube since I still get requests from professors and teachers to use this visual explanation. So, using Camatasia for Mac, I captured the playback, converted it to video and uploaded to YouTube. Check out my You Tube explanatory video on Hydrogen Fuel Cells.

Wordpress Tutorial Screencast

Read on VisualThinkMedia.com

Online Visual Explanation: Plastic Bottles & Ocean Pollution

We’re living in a time of information overload and complexity, inundated with too much information and too little time to get through it. I believe that visual explanations, such as video and online presentations, will be an important tool for organizations to convey their message, whether that’s selling a product or advocating action of some other kind.

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Visual Creative Thinking

Just came across this in SlideShare.

Visual Creative Thinking

View more presentations from homehelper.

Index Cards & Mind Mapping to Organize a Presentation

I'm in the process of developing an online visual explanation SlideShare presentation about plastic water bottles and ocean pollution for my blog SaveTheOcean (and to share with other Ocean advocacy organizations). I've liked both Cliff Atkinson's and Nancy Duarte's presentation development methodologies, but for some reason have still felt the need to combine elements of both and customize.

Two tools that I'm finding to be really useful are a stack of index cards and mind mapping software (I'm using Nova Mind). The index cards are great for capturing key points in the brainstorming phase. In Nancy's workshop at VizThink recently she had us use post-it notes, but personally I'm finding that index cards are easier to use. I don't have a big whiteboard or wall to organize them all so I can just lay out my index cards on a table or the floor and rearrange as needed, then pack them all up in order when I need the space for something else.

At a certain point, the index cards started getting to be a bit unwieldy so I created a mind map in NovaMind to continue working on the structure of the presentation. I think any of the presentation gurus will tell you that defining your presentation content and structuring it all outside of PowerPoint or Keynote is a best practice. So, next time you have a presentation to develop, hold off on opening up PowerPoint, get some index cards and some mind mapping software (free versions are readily available if you don't have any) and give it a try.

An example of the mind map I'm using to develop my presentation is shown below. It's still a work in progress with more to flesh out.