Two tips to effectively presenting in a classroom setting

Presenting infront of your peers can be a very scary experience for some students. However, if you get past your nerves, presenting can eventually get to be fun. Here are a couple tips to effectively presenting in a classroom:

1. Practice, practice, practice
You can never practice too much for a presentation. Sure, many people usually get nervous when speaking in front of an audience; however, if you practice your speach enough that you become comfortable with the material then you will be less nervous when doing it infront of others. The more you go over your presentation, the less likely you will be to say, "um," or "like," or other filler words that lack professionalism and distract from the subject matter.

2. Be yourself.
While you want to be as professional as possible, you don't want your audience to not even recognize who is talking to them. Be yourself and be comfortable so that your audience can better relate to you. Make sure you actually make eye contact with your peers, just as you would in normal conversation. This help them to pay better attention when you aren't just giving your presentation to the back wall behind them.

When you follow these two tips it will help you to be more comfortable in front of your audience. When you are comfortable, your presenation will be much easier to relate with and more exciting for the audience to listen to. Your ultimate goal should be to inform your audience of the assigned topic, while making it as pleasing as possible for them to hear about it.

Response to Bryan Mortensen's blog

I read Bryan Mortensen’s blog entitled “Is job-hunting success more about who you know or what you know?”. I definitely agree with his analogy and think it applies perfectly to the job hunting scenario. However, the only thing I would add to is his comment about, “you can land a job with just a cake.” He is referring to the idea that you don’t need frosting (or in other words you do not need to know someone) to get a job. I agree, but I would add the fact that you might have to make a lot of cakes before you get someone to accept one without any frosting on it. When job hunting, it may take you a long time to find someone that will hire you that you are a complete stranger to. It will most likely take you a few tries to get a job when you don’t know anyone to give you a head start. I have had personal experience recently with this situation. Since I am new to Cache Valley I am without “frosting” whereas in Spanish Fork I knew plenty of people and could easily find a job. It is just going to take me a few tries of baking a frosting-less cake before someone realizes that I actually make some pretty dang good tasting cake

Collaboration technology and its applications in group work

Collaboration technology has a variety of uses in a school setting and even business settings. This technology can particularly be very beneficial to students working on group projects. Collaboration technology gives students an additional way to communicate with one another; this proves very effective because students are generally “always busy” and don’t have time to meet as a group.

Collaboration technologies make it easy to work on one project simultaneously from different locations. Document sharing and editing is just one of the benefits students can utilize when working together on a project. These technologies also can provide chatting, photo sharing, presentation editing, and many other applications that can aid group productivity. Classroom group work is much more efficient with the use of collaboration technologies and needs to be utilized more often.

What you know, or who you know?

When job searching, it can at times seem like you will never find anything because you don’t "know someone". Sometimes it seems like employers do not even give you a second glace unless they have a relational obligation to do so. While knowing someone can be a very helpful resource to have, I believe it does not get you a job.

A job search can definitely be made easier if you know someone; it gives you an easy place to start. Knowing someone in a business gets you in the door and possibly an automatic interview. However, once you get to an interview it no longer matters if you have an “in”. To get through an interview it solely depends on what you know. At this point, the only benefit of knowing someone in the business is for a reference. Your knowledge of the company and your qualifications are the things that will get you hired. When job hunting, knowing someone will only get you so far. What you know is essentially what will get you a job.

Appropriate attire for business interview

The way that you dress for an interview tells many things about yourself. One of the most important things that your dress represents is the respect you have for the interviewer and also the company you are interviewing for.

As a start, appropriate dress consists of well-fitted, modest clothes. You don't want your outfit to be the focus of the interview, and definitely not the only thing that they remember. Also, even if the normal business wear is casual, you should dress up for the interview to pay compliment to the interviewer and to show that you are taking the job seriously. Men should wear a nice suit, silk tie, dress socks, and belt to match the shoes. A dark suit and white shirt is usually appropriate for men. Conservative colors are always best for both men and women. Extreme fashions and colors should always be avoided. Women should wear either a two-pieced suit or skirt to an interview. Women should keep in mind the length of their skirt so that it will at least cover their thighs when sitting down. Lastly, women should be conservative with their makeup and perfume as to not distract from the interview.

The main thing to remember when dressing for a business interview is that you want to look like you deserve the job you are applying for. You want to look nice, but not distracting in any way. You want them to remember you for your ideas and not for the outfit you wore.

New asset joins Huntsman School of Business

Last Tuesday Utah State University made an announcement stating that Stephen R. Covey would join the Huntsman School of Business as a incumbent professor. Stephen Covey has written many books including the best-seller Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. He has had years of practical experience in the business field. He is also known as someone with great business ethics and leadership skills which are valuable qualities to bring to Utah State.

Stephen Covey's decision to join the staff here is great news for all business students. He will be a great asset to the staff and reputation of the Huntsman School of Business. He will not be teaching the students, but rather will act as a guest lecturer at times. He will also be working with faculty on curriculum and will be a reseach scholar for the school. Stephen Covey's addition to Utah State will improve what is already a great program.

Letter writing has a place

Some may consider letter writing to be archaic, outdated, and no longer needed. I strongly disagree to the idea that letter writing does not need to be taught anymore. However, writing letters definitely has a time and place that it is appropriate. Technology has provided many other forms of communication for us today. Emails, text messages, social networks, and other forms of communication are very time efficient ways for us to communicate. They save time both on the sending and receiving ends. While at times these methods of communicating may be more convenient and appropriate for the situation, there are times when written letters must be used.

At times, written letters are simply a necessary formality. It would not be appropriate to write an email to employers or school administrators about requests for promotions or similar pressing issues. A properly constructed written letter shows respect and admiration to the recipient. Another reason letter writing is so important is because letters are tangible. People are more likely to read something that comes to their door, rather than just appearing on their computer screen. It is too easy for people to just delete or ignore emails that they just don’t want to read.

Letter writing simply is a necessity that we must continue to teach and learn. While other technologies may communicate more effectively on occasion, letter writing is still something we must continue to use in most business settings.