Meeting with the head teacher..

[Kitten Kong]

I received an email off a head teacher of a local primary school last week.

Good evening,
I have just read your article in the Times.

[Quick story on the Times. It's a local magazine which is published each month. I write a column in the mag each month (free advertising for me). I also get a bus card ad included in the mag. Again for free. So it's a complete no brainer for me to continue with this. Been doing it for close to 2 years now, and its my main form of client base.]

I am newly appointed Interim Head Teacher at XXX Primary and absolutely agree, the e-safety issue is a great worry.

I'm just wondering if you may be able to come over to school to discuss some possible training for parents in ICT safety etc..

We are looking also to purchasing some new systems, as well as ridding ourselves of some devices that are old.
You may be able to help us out...

Please do get in touch if you think this may be something we could follow up.
Kind regards,

XXX

Now this is a local primary school to me.
The article in question, was the Facebook one, which is from the Technibble Newsletter group.

Now although I love the thought of doing a talk like this. I'm cacking my pants seriously!. For a number of reasons.

1: I detest public speaking with a MAJOR passion.
2: I can not speak in public.
3: What the hell would I talk about.
4:. See numbers 1-3.

Any pointers please guys and gals?

Well. I and a fellow technician who is also a member here, threw together some ideas.

I had my meeting with the head teacher this afternoon.

And after looking around for the slipper and cane, and having a joke about the last time I was in a heads office I got the cane, we had a productive meeting.

The gist of it is, we are hoping to put together a presentation, which I will give to parents of this local school.

All to do with internet safety. For themselves, and more to the point their children.

If it all goes to plan, hoping to roll it out to other local primary schools in my area, then district wide.

Myself and a technical colleague have put together some fantastic ideas, which as a parent should really scare the living daylights out of you, if you are not careful.

And it really should and does apply to everyone who has a computer which accesses the internet.

Fingers crossed it all works out.

The head, asked me how much I wours charge for this. And I said as this is my first one, I'm willing to do it free of charge. Just to see how it goes.

Esafety is something I as a technician am passionate about. And all parents need to know what is happening and how to combat it. And make lives safer on the internet.

So I'm putting together a presentation in PowerPoint. Thinking it will take about an hour to do. And hope all goes well with the idea.

Wish me luck guys.. I'm going to need it lol.

I'll upload my ideas later on, as I'm still on cloud 9 right now.

Just to see if there is anything else anyone could add or subtract from it.

 

[Mike McCall]

Congrats, Nige! What a great opportunity!

I don't have much to offer as I'm as freaked-out about public speaking as you are. A couple of general suggestions would be to keep it really simple, and try to limit it to an hour. Most end users don't really understand what they want us to think they understand, and by the end of an hour they're not learning anything more anyway.

 

[Moltuae]

You're a braver man than me Nige.

The last time I gave a public talk, coincidentally, was at a school. I was aged about 12, and I had to tell the rest of the class all about my hobby, electronics. I think I bored them all half to death.

Good luck!

 

[TurricanII]

I'd love to do this kind of thing, free time permitting.

I'd print a load of takeaway slips with key information bullets and a link to the presentation or at least slides and PDF script on YouTube/your website. Probably makes sense to get your name out there!

I'd focus more on the interpersonal and parenting elements - not so much the technology. Enable the parents to educate their kids to the risks and take precautions. Keeping Internet access limited to the main living room for primary school kids. No smart phones for primary school aged kids (in my opinion!).

"Once a picture is emailed/placed on the Internet it can be there forever".

As an example I saw with my own son recently, he saw a small pink character and assumed that the person behind the character is a little girl.

These videos might inspire or even fit into your presentation, or you might recommend that the parents show them to kids:

As you are in the UK you might use Freedom of Information requests of the Government to get key stats about Internet related crimes to present to parents. I have seen many spreadsheets and crime stats produced in response to well worded requests. Get stats for your county perhaps too. See here: https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/list/successful

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/sear...ll?advanced=true&commit=Search&sortby=&utf8=✓

 

[Markverhyden]

Is this a "can you do this next week kind of thing". If so tell them you need time to prepare. If you've never done any public speaking it takes some time and practice get past the "scared to death" faze. LOL!!!

Done plenty of public speaking type stuff in the past. Taught training courses for employees and customers, gave presentations, speeches to politicians, who ignore you when your doing it, when I was President of our Civic Club in Houston.

Content. Send out a simple questionnaire to get passed around to parents so you can see what their hot button topics are. Never assume you know what is important to them, you do know what that spells, right?

On the delivery. Some simple tips.

1. Since your new to this is behooves you to actually write it out, in full. But start with an outline. When you actually deliver it you should use the outline, not the full text. Otherwise you will probably end up reading to them instead of speaking to them.

2. Practice, practice, and practice. Then practice some more.

3. One of the biggest problems with public speaking is the "freezing" phenomena. From my experience it comes from 3 things. Distractions, like noises or sudden movement, making eye contact, and forgetting your material. If you don't remember point 2 above, read it again.

Just like the agility stuff you do, good public speaking takes practice. A suggested path.

1. Write up your presentation and practice it in front of a mirror, literally. Live is not the same recording. And while giving the speech do not look at yourself. Look at the top of your head, left, right. This is a key part to over coming the eye contact problem. You can even practice this in public during your normal day to day stuff.

2. Once you've done that a few times, spaced out over a day or three, then, without reviewing the material, try to write down the outline of the speech. Just straight, do not go back to fill in the blanks. Then compare it to the original.

3. Round up a few volunteer friends/family to be the live audience. Again the key is to not look them directly in the eye while delivering, just around their head. Beginning at a distance of around 4-5' people cannot distinguish whether you are looking at them in the eye or not (immediately around the head). Also practice scanning the audience. Do not look only at one person. Shift your gaze. One good tip is to shift it each time you make a point. Make sure they do some random distractions, like coughing, clearing throat, standing up and moving or even leaving. Practice a few gestures, especially when making a point. But don't go wild. Some of the best speakers I have seen used almost no gestures.

Best of luck. This could be a great source of new customers if you deliver a confident presentation.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Wow.. What some fantastic posts. Thank you so much guys. Mark, that is brilliant advice.

It is something we are aiming to do. But definitely not next week so to speak lol.

 

[glennd]

... and when all else fails, PANIC!!!!

 

[TurricanII]

Agree with Mark - distil the speech down to bullet points and keywords once you get the structure, so you cover topics naturally. The only way you can really fail is by not having relevant or useful information to present. If they come out of the meeting with no means of remembering/enacting at least one piece of advice then that might be a fail. Having the material online means you can relax a little on the presentation and keep reminding them that they can review later.

Regarding confidence, just remember that these people have come specifically to hear the advice of a knowledgeable person on a topic that may terrify them. Are you a parent? If so then you are talking to people in the same position as you are/were/will be. You are doing a large number of people a huge favour by giving your time.

They are probably not a bunch of super intelligent IT gimps who are there to critique your performance or material.

 

[River Valley Computer]

Depending on your audience and the number of them I have found handouts are good also. If you have a lot of material that would necessitate many pages don't but a bullet point of the issues you are going to talk about will give them a take home (also free advertising if you use letterhead).

In this type of presentation I believe handouts would be beneficial but if you are doing classroom training I feel it provides a distraction and they don't listen to you.

Just remember - your are the professional at the subject - not them, and hopefully they will be bug-eyed listening to you.

 

[NviGate Systems]

You bullet point hand outs should have perhaps easy to remember phrases like:

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is....

Think twice about what you post, it will live forever....

Stuff like that. Don't be afraid to put some humor in it, people react good with small comics that have numerous situations. Plenty of free/low cost royalty free comic images that could add that slight comedy relief for your presentation.

 

[ChrisTech]

Every time I've had to do a talk (the last time was to a bunch of uni students and their parents) I've had initial anxiety, apprehension, etc. - it's human.

But on every single occasion, I've found two things: -

1. Appropriate humour breaks the ice
2. After a few minutes you realise that they are not going to bite and you might end up actually enjoying it!

Good luck Nige

 

[GTP]

I hate public speaking so... Your on your own, mate! Good luck!

 

[NOLA IT Pro]

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2010/SIA334
One of the best presentations on giving a technical talk.
Both Mark Minasi and Mark Russinovich do a great job of showing how to prepare a presentation.

 

[River Valley Computer]

Every time I've had to do a talk (the last time was to a bunch of uni students and their parents) I've had initial anxiety, apprehension, etc. - it's human.

But on every single occasion, I've found two things: -

1. Appropriate humour breaks the ice
2. After a few minutes you realise that they are not going to bite and you might end up actually enjoying it!

Good luck Nige

I totally agree - I have had to do presentations in my previous )) corporate quite often. He is right - after a while you do enjoy it. The are looking to you for answers and it is very rewarding when you see light bulbs go off when they learn something new.

 

[CheddarPCsKP]

I've given a similar presentation to our local U3A group Nige (been invited back three times now, so either they don't listen or I'm doing something right). Key things I'd suggest are:-
Speak clearly, use plain language and put everything across in easy to understand terms;
Allow LOTS of time for questions - up to you whether to have a formal Q&A at the end or answer as you go, but I'll answer questions as I go provided the answer doesn't take long or distract from the point.
Mingle at the end - there will be people who wanted to ask questions but didn't like to;
Go in with an open mind - it's good fun when it's over and an education in how customers think, and how much they know.

Printed handouts are appreciated, especially if they're written in plain English.....they'll have your info on of course

Enjoy it though, and remember it's a win-win situation. Once you've started you'll find the time flies by.

 

[Kitten Kong]

Thanks @CheddarPCsKP Kevin.

to be honest, I am kinda looking forward to doing the talk. But I would be lying if I said I was not quaking in my boots at the thought of it lol.

 

[callthatgirl]

Congrats Nige!

Here is how I do my speaking, I create an outline of topics and free talk everything.

Example
Those 800 number pop ups/scams
Email phishing
Password security
Kid mobile phone safety

Have a basic list and practice up a bit on that. It's so much easier than you think. I just talked last week to 2 groups, about 70 in each. I was nervous a bit for both but when I started, it just flew by. You know your stuff!!!

 

[coffee]

This might help you Nige,

Put together a slide show consisting of stuff like how to spot fake sites and scams and other stuff pertaining to your discussion. The idea is to focus the people on the slide show and not you. Then you feel more comfortable giving a presentation. The people are not all staring at you - They are focused on the slide show.

This will help you feel more comfortable in giving your presentation. Besides, People like slide shows and stuff like that too.