Blended learning for oral presentations

Set up this activity as a communication workshop for students who need to prepare for their final exam (grade 12th). The activity works best as part of the school’s program for developing transversal competencies and career orienteering (in the Italian school system, PCTO), as a path carried out in collaboration with professionals and companies.

Plan for this activity a set of six meetings of two hours each (total of twelve hours for each student), divided into three face-to-face and three online meetings (you can use Google Meet or other video conference tools such as Zoom or Skype). Meet up with 10 to 15 students at a time, depending on the number of students involved.

During the meetings at school, deal with both technical topics such as interpersonal communication and storytelling techniques, deepened with practical individual and group activities; and let students practice on the final presentation of their own project. This has to cover different subjects while taking into account topics that can be gathered in the same speech. Please note that the content of the final project is independent from the activity: the latter has to serve as a support to develop skills useful to improve the presentation.

During the online meetings, deal with the use of the Internet for communication and for the creation of effective professional networks through social media. This part can be best carried out by professionals and entrepeneurs that can be involved in the project to engage and stimulate the students in a certain career after the school. 

The activity requires each student to produce a multimedia presentation of their projects and on which they are going to be evaluated. The criteria of assessment have to be consistent with those techniques (at least) that you have explained during the meetings at school. Suggest different tools: Miro, PowerPoint, Canva, Google Slides, and share from the very beginning of the activity the criteria of assessment with the students: these are going to represent the learning goals of the activity. Finally, include the presentation in each student’s final portfolio.