Power points
Power points are ver informative and I use them mostly for visual aids as far a showing my students parts and components.
Salina,
To keep things interesting, I'll use one slide to introduce an idea, then use the white board, flip chart, and discussion to add variety, then return to another slide to introduce the next point. Keeping students engaged is assisted by mixing up the delivery frequently.
Barry Westling
Power points are the main tools that I use when lecturing but I've found that student like the interaction when I write things on the board.
Catherine,
I agree. PPT slides are a good tool, but just that, a tool. It's the instructor that has the information. Putting all needed information into the slides is not as helpful as just using bulleted points as a guide to discussion. PPT is great for illustrations, photo's, charts, tables, images, diagrams -- visual stuff like that. For text, I think that's best left for textbooks, handouts, and workbooks.
Barry Westling
I like power points for augmenting lecture. I like a plain jane pared down look. Too much background style distracts me from the content on the page. A bit of color variation is a nice break and visual perk.
Phil,
Bullets really help an instructor discuss a topic without having to list every detail they're speaking about. Plus discussion makes PPT slides more interesting and memorable.
Barry Westling
I agree. Too much data is distracting to students and they spend too much time trying to copy every word. If data is presented, having it bullitized is more effective.
Michael,
95% content, 5% glitz. In the end, it's the content that'll matter, with the fancy transitions remaining as a hazy, perhaps forgotten memory.
Barry Westling
I agree. Perhaps using the fancy transitions, effects, etc. for the title slide is fine in order to introduce the topic, but after that, I like to back it off and apply the KISS principle. I have one student who has so many whiz-bang effects in his PP presentations that you are waiting for the next "event" and miss the content...which is too bad, because his content is good, just overshadowed.
Beware the words of Marshall McLuhan: "The medium IS the message."
Stephanie,
Plainly, there are good as well as poor methods in creating PPT presentataions. Simple and direct is better than elaborate and busy. Perhaps in a few cases, such as a formal lecture to a professional audience, more formal slides may be appropriate. Generally, that's not the audience we are teaching to an a day to day basis.
Barry Westling
Power Point is a GREAT tool, but unfortunately, too many students (an many instructors) use it to write a script rather than an overview of the material they want to present to their audience. This causes them to read directly from the screen, and causes the audience to lose interest. Unfortunately, we have too many teachers requiring students to use Power Point in elementary and middle school that don't know how to teach Power Point. So, they don't teach it and they just let students do whatever they want to with it. This results in scripts rather than bulleted lists, and overuse of transition, animation, and sound. By the time students get their first formal class in Power Point they have developed too many bad habits and don't want to correct they want the prepare presentations.
Donna,
This sounds like a good plan. For me, only rarely would I ever need to put a comprehensive slide together (composed of lots of sentences, images, photographs, etc.). Usually, I'll use the PPT to guide me through lectures and students can follow along in their text or handouts. Trying to put all of the information into single slides for viewing is probably not the best use of instructor time or effort.
Barry Westling
I like to use PPT to make bullet points of the main issues/facts/ideas I am discussing. I can glance at the slide to help keep my thoughts organized and sequential as I am speaking on a topic.
Karen,
What you describe, I agree with and make my practice. There's a lot that can be done with PPT, but in shorter sessions and with more variety. This helps keep students interest, too.
Barry Westling
Powerpoints are great for a visual in the classroom for illustrations. They should not be used as the main information. Some instructors use powerpoints to the point where the students get bored. Death by powerpoint is not the only way information should be presented in the classroom. Variety of methods should be used with the powerpoints. Powerpoints should mainly be used for just outline of the material being presented.
Todd,
It's odd that students might think more elaborate slide formatting would substitute for for content. I think this is true even for instructors. Perhaps the only time that is acceptable is when actually teaching PPT and the assignment calls for adding in special effects to determine if a student has learned how to do it.
Barry Westling
I completely agree. I teach PowerPoint, and after learning the mechanics of PowerPoint I then tell my student to basically forget all the fancy stuff, it is neat, but it all distracts from what you are doing.
Keep it simple, never use PowerPoint unless you have a specific reason. Don't just use it because you can.
Timothy,
I think PPT is best suited for photo's, illustrations, figures, tables, graphs, schematics, diagrams, and summary notes. I find it less useful to provide bulk volumes of data.
Barry Westling
