As I reflect on this weeks studies of "the digital divide" and "digital inequality", I realize how little I know about combining academia and multimedia presentations. I am well used to providing mock-up presentations to graphic designer business partners, as an instructor/SME, but here I was reminded of how unpolished I am when designing a final deck myself. I also felt like I was in a fog about how to present academic material, since it seems like a clash of worlds: academic material seeming dense, lengthy/verbose, and dry, versus what my experience has been of presenting outside of academia with decks that are pithy and "pretty". I felt pretty lost about how much information to put in my deck: I am used to keeping slides very brief, with more of the information shared orally by the presenter, but I felt conflicted that I should put in more of what I researched (citations and all). This confusion is easily seen as most of the deck is tight and uncluttered, except where I describe the 3 issues I discuss, and then it explodes into wordiness (which I still feel is actually too brief and incomplete!)
I loved learning about the digital divide and digital inequality because it directly relates to my own interests. I found myself confused over definitions and the difference between the two. I also didn't realize there was such a robust discussion about it (meaning, the two together) here in the United States on a national level. More importantly for me personally, I learned that my own focus on ICT4D (internet & communications technology for developing nations) has been much too narrowly focused on tools and ideas, and I have barely scratched the surface of the issues which I read about this week. In fact, I sort of hung my head when realizing this - here is something I believe is important to me, and my knowledge of it is not broad, but rather deep in a very small number of other related areas. Naturally, I plan to aggressively expand my knowledge about these issues in the future. The learning resources I used this week provided me some great directions.
If I had more time, I'd continue researching this topic - indeed, I want to be a student of it the rest of my life and make it one of my primary focuses - and better incorporate it into the deck I made. I want to better understand how to do this since I remain a bit confused over how to present "academia" using solid presentation principles, as described above. I remain completely grateful in learning how little I know, in observing personal learning blind spots.
My presentation may be view here (speaker notes only accessible when logged in to my account.)
