Power Points
The biggest key to have a successful power point is to remember that your slides are just summaries and should not be over crowded. The presenter should expand from the key points on the slide.
Arthur,
Good that this works for you. Whether printed out or displayed on a screen, I find the most valuable information is what I possess and share, so it would make little difference which support material I make available. Better interaction as you experience is a plus for your students and their learning outcomes.
Barry Westling
I'm in a brand new class room with no over head projector. I used to rely on power point and video presentations very heavily. Now, I print out my slides and or talking points on paper and hand them out. I like this better because it creates more interaction between the students and myself.
Christie,
Elaborating on information on a slide is a much better way for students to grasp ideas and information, better than cramming a slide with too much information. Besides there being more information needed for a given slide, expanding on key bullet points is more interesting and allows the instructor to spend as little or as much time on a slide as necessary to get their point across.
Barry Westling
I try to summarize the power points and not just read them. while summarizing them I throw in a story of joke so that student dont get bored.
James,
Great. Brief is better (as there are better sources for reading). There's nothing quite like an experienced instructor elaborating on a section of the lesson with PPT slides that depict bullet points to guide them.
Barry Westling
I felt the same way in my teaching. I started just using them for key terms that students needed to understand and then I would explain and give examples. Now I only use power points for step-by-step or similar examples. Giving them access to the slides early provides them of an overview and also help when a student is absent.
James,
Great technique to involve learners of different levels.
Barry Westling
When using a publisher supplied or my own version of PP, I instruct the students to use it as a guide for their chapter being covered. I encourage them to highlight key points from the PP to their texts eliminating the writing aspect word for word slow down which we all have seen. This technique has been very useful for slower learners who catch on to the concept after a few sessions. I further encourage them to use different color markers to distinguish key terms and concepts.
Joel,
I think this is a much better way to conduct a discussion. Unfortunately, I also like to the white board, and when the screen is pulled down it limits my board space.
Barry Westling
I usually limit the number of major bullets and use them as talking points for the the important content and class discussion.
Sebastian,
I do this as well. There is a tendency to look ahead, but nonetheless, all of my talking points are there so that only the discussion points need to be jotted down.
Barry Westling
One of the biggest issues that I've had with PP is that students tend to write everthing from the slide word-for-word. Even after telling them that the important part is in the lecture, some still do it.
To remedy the issue, I have started to make the slides available to students to download so that they can have them ready for class. Additionally, if they download them early enough, they can get a jump start on the upcoming lecture.
Mary,
What you do works best, at least for me. I think PPT's out to lead discussions, not be the focus of the lecture.
Barry Westling
I use my power points as a tool to begin a discussion. I show the picture then I break it down for the students. I get great feed back from the students that they love the way I use the power point.I just dont show the picture then read what it says on the power point I go into great detail on the subject.
Kimberly,
Right. Good formatting and limited information works better than too much information squeezed onto slides. There are better ways for students to read course material than PPT slides.
Barry Westling
