I enjoyed reading chapter two of Sail the 7 Cs with Microsoft Education by Becky Keene and Kathi Kersznowski. This chapter is filled with wonderful testimonies of educators across the world and the programs they use to engage students in their classrooms. One program caught my eye: Presenter Coach. Presenter Coach is used alongside PowerPoint to help prepare students for speeches. The program accomplishes this by listening to the speaker and comparing this to the content on the slides. It will notify the student if they are talking too fast, too slow, or just right. Presenter Coach will also provide feedback on the language being used, regarding if it is inclusive or not. My favorite feature is that it picks up on phrases like “um” or “basically.” Personally, I struggle with using “like” too much in a sentence. I didn’t even notice that I was doing this until a professor pointed it out to the class. The next time I was having a conversation with a classmate, I noticed just how often I was using “like.” When I tried not to say “like,” I found myself stumbling over my words more. Presenter Coach may not be able to completely fix these linguistic errors, but I think that it can help mitigate the issue, especially before a presentation. Students should not be the only ones to use this program either. Professionals across the world could benefit from practicing with Presenter Coach.
