I love Powerpoint!
I think students benefit from seeing a colorful presentation onscreen, having the handouts with clear, small versions of the slides and space to take notes. Being green, though, I encourage everyone to fit at least 3 slides per page, and copy them double-sided.
Lynn,
I think PPT is wonderful, when used appropriately, and when it's the best tool to convey information. Overuse, adding two many bells and whistles, or two much information on individual slides doesn't make for interesting presenations or retention of information. But assisting the instructor facilitate a discussion using PPT slides can make an otherwise drab session come alive!
Barry Westling
I love PowerPoint presentation especially in computer classes. They work for my students.
Hi Sherri:
One general, all-purpose guideline to remember about using power-point is this – don’t read the slides to the students. Unless you’re deliberately trying to make a point, reading slides is the quickest way to have students tune out during the lesson.
Instead, it’s better to cover the main points on the slide, and have the students refer to the notes on their own.
Regards, Barry
Hi Lolita:
Absolutely. In fact, it is considered poor form for an instructor to "read" notes on the PPT slides. It is considered better to make some comments on the primary ideas that are presented - for ANY media used for presenting information.
Regards, Barry
Hi Abigail:
Additionally, no matter what presentation tool we use, it's important to try to use a variety of teaching styles.
It's important to promote as many different ways as possible (as time allows) to try to address as many learning styles as we can.
Regards, Barry
Hi Mary:
One idea about ANY presentation tool is ideally, we need to balance the use of the tool with a variety of teaching methods to address as many types of learning styles as possible.
Regards, Barry
Hi Christina:
PP is great, and can be very effective. Ideally, we should use a variety of instructional methods to address every type of learning style.
Regards, Barry
Hi Van:
Another consideration is touse power point AND the white board as a means to get the students looking at different perspectives of the same material.
Regards, Barry
I agree, print 3-6 slides and double side them. Students seem to expect the "big show" in class and PP is one way of delivering that. I find that more media I use, the more engaged they become.
I agree! In this day and age with the plethora of visual that bombard our brains, our students are mostly visual learners. Lecturing alone does not meet student needs. Utilizing power points presentations helps students who need the visuals to retain the concepts being taught.
I am also selective about when to use PowerPoints. They work well to present lecture concepts but they can get tiresome if they are not interspersed with active learning techniques.
I prefer providing my students with PPT as well, I think it's even better when the student writes down what I say or what they discuss/read about as they go through the text.
I agree. There is so much that you can do with PP presentations that even with some of the games available with the text books,the students actually learn alot and have fun at the same time.
I also like using PP presentations. The publisher of the textbook that I use in the class provides an excellent PP to use for each chapter. I also pu together some of my own to enhance the learning process.
I do not always use powerpoint but when I do I like the fact that the students can each have a copy and add notes.
I agree. I also use PP slides that are provided by the publisher. I haven't really changed anything on the slides yet because I have not had the resources to do so.
I have found that it saves time versus having to write everything on the white board, but some concepts are better understood when outlined on the white board. I have also noticed that some of the provided slides have mistakes. I usually just have to explain that it is a mistake, and make a correction with the class.
Our text book publisher provded a detailed presentation for each chapter. These give us a track to run on, but we can develop our own and keep them up to date. An orderly presentation keeps us on task. We leave blanks for students to fill in key words. Printing three or more frames on a page saves paper, but one side of the page is easier to follow. Color, motion and sound can add much, but we need to make sure that the audience can view the font through the fluff.
