Alexandra Fochi

I almost never use power point presentations, however, when I do, what I project is a complement to what I am talking about. So for example, if I am teaching about wine, the ppt will show pictures of vineyards, wine cellars, bottling, so on and so forth. As for my lecture, I use the white board a lot, with colors and I encourage the students to take notes and pictures of the board. I feel that as I write on the board in a progression of what we are discussing, it is as if they are watching a story unfold in front of them and they tend to keep more focused. Like when I teach Nutrition, I slowly draw "Joe", who is my digestive system model, and as Joe eats an apple, I make that piece of apple travel down his digestive tract and explain the different stages of digestion and absorption. I could do that using ppt as well, but somehow the white board makes is more fun for the students. They like Joe. Should this class ever be on an Adaptive Learning model, then Joe and the digestive system could be turned into some sort of game.

Katherine Donaho-Wessman

I like your idea of doing a demonstration and then watching the powerpoint and using it as a second learning style.  I also like to have the powerpoint available as I am showing the students something just in case they do not understand why we are doing this.  Most of our students are hands on and learn much more from a visual presentation. I feel that over half my class tends to drift off when I begin a powerpoint.  I try to ask questions to bring them back into the presentation but this is the time they secretly pull out their phones and read their emails. But, if I am doing a demonstration and the powerpoint at the same time, this may eleviate the problem.

Paul Lovelace CHEP

I use Powerpoint a lot.  The first thing I learned was to make sure there is enough light for your students to take notes and refer to additional resources.  Lights out, powerpoints result in nap time.  Text in powerpoints must be as concise and as short as possible while still conveying any information that will be asked for on a test.  Since I teach an industrial trade a higher percentage of my students are kinesthetic learners.  They get much more out of the powerpoint if I literally step into the picture and draw in additional information.  While the picture play on my body my be a little distracting, seeing me actually take a straight edge, triangle or protractor and draw in connecting lines that complete geometric figures or show relationships seems to be much more effective for kinesthetic learners than simply having the lines appear in the powerpoint.  When they see me actually draw something it helps them to see what is happening, they can picture themselves doing the same thing. In fact, they are often mimicking my motions on their drawings or work sheets.  

Randall Herbst CHEP

@SherryErney recently myself and some colleagues put together a presentation that on that out set looked overwelming. We found ways to break up the slide show with demonstrations and even used a monitor from the side of the room with the main board behind us showing the slide show to make sure we maintained godd face to face contact with our learners.

Elliot Jennings

@SherryErney

I find PPoints to be overused.  One of the worst things I see from instructors is that their entire speech IS the PPoint.  They and the class read to screen verbatim...making it dull and uninviting. 

I try to create PPoints that are bullet points about what I am going to instruct...the highlights.

I also try to use some of the fancier tools to make the PPoint looking more interactive and also make sure my slides are not 100% text.

daniel reyes

@SherryErney

PPT are awesome...for sleeping...no really. I use PPT for keeping me on track. My PPT are guide topics to connect the dots. The speaker notes are key or my lecture. I will walk the classroom with the PPT or online I will flip through PPT as I am speaking. It gives direction for the student in regards to where we are going. I use PPTs like mindmaps...it helps when I discuss the concept with my students.

sandra tapp

@SherryErney

I actually enjoy using power points and have found them to be quite useful. I do undertand your points though, and make a concerted effort to not have my back to the students. I use a clicker and walk around the room and encourage the students input. I also utilize handouts with the power point and try to add in videos where appropriate.

I only use power points that I have extensively reviewed or created myself to avoid the embarassment of someone else's mistakes (I make enough of my own)

Robert Pace

We are about to start Moodle for our first term classes, so it will be a learning curve for the students as well as the instructors. Students obviously all learn at a slightly different speed, but having everything available to them on their iPads will be interesting. They will be able to read ahead if they want and we may lose the everyday interaction with the student because they will be focused on the material on their device.

Amjad Majeed

@rmenke. I make and build my own PowerPoint presentations for each chapter. This gives me flexibilty and control over the material that students need to understand.

Robb Epps

@SherryErney

Agreed. I've been a subject matter expert for developing online courses. When the LMS basically becomes an internet delivery system of power point like prresentations students turn off and ignore the material. I have even talked with instructors who feel like they have to teach as if no one has accessed those materials.

Carolyn OSullivan

Couldn't agree more a ppt that is not put together right can take the class in an entire different direction.  I have been in classes that the teacher just really reads from the ppt that was poorly put together and the entire class is upset.  It is great to have a ppt for the visual learners in your class and to make sure the students get your information but it should be put together correctly.

Matthew Gomez

@SherryErney

I agree to a point as many instructors do tend to overload PowerPoint's with too much information.  I like the less is more approach.  The key points/bullets are on the PowerPoint, but we discuss within class information the expands on the PowerPoint in various ways.  I think students should also have access to the PowerPoint's as well, but in certain cases, their version may be different the the final version used in class (mainly because of topics and how quickly information many change in certain fields such as Politics/History).

John Hamilton

@SherryErney

I have to agree, overloaded powerpoints are a nightmare for the student. It is best to limit the number of points in a slide and keep it to a minimum for the student. Also, I like to the leave the students a copy of the PowerPoint presentation. 

Pamela payne

I personally do not like using power points. I like to have students engaged and have found that if they can touch it they can relate better and understand concepts.  The hands on approach has always been better.

Kelly Hess

@pgiuliano

I agree Powerpoint lacks wow factor. As instructors/ professors we need to wow students and engage them.

-Kelly

Kelly Hess

Good topic. I agree with you about powerpoints and do think they are overused.

Recently while teaching in a live chat online, I had a student commend me for not using only powerpoints. She said that her previous instructor would just show powerpoint how tos and she really liked the fact that I was adding in live how to actually do something step by step instead of just listing it in a powerpoint.

I think it is important to make sure that we all don't just go through the motions and that we interact with our students. One student told me they liked seeing how I was having a hard time. I was showing them a how to, and purposely added a text tool that I knew if I tried the next step it wouldn't allow. The students were impressed that I kept plugging through and got through it. And I said well it's important to have patience with what you are doing otherwise you will be too frustrated.

Fact is students like to see this interaction. They don't want to be read to daily as they can read on their own.

thanks for your discussion. You bring up a very important topic.

Thanks again,

Kelly

Robin Gerace

@SherryErney

I think  a power point can be very useful but, I like to teach to all kinds of learning students. Everyone learns differently. You also have to explain the content of the power point as well as, using analagies, props, etc., to make the learning interesting and fun.

Lydia Figueroa

Peter, I think placing the students in different age and gender groups is a good way for students to learn from their peers. Older adults could benefit from the young technically-savvy students and younger students could benefit from hearing life’s lessons from older students. These are just examples of what may transpire with this type of group diversity.

When I was a young woman in college one of my best friends who was also a classmate was about 20 years older than me. She inspired me to continue my educational journey, provided me with constructive criticism and presented stories about some of her life experiences as it related to academia

Peter George CHEP

I place students in different age and gender groups and  have them do up to date research on the powerpoint information from their smart phones. We then have a lively discussion on the pertinent information.

Some of the powerpoint information is outdated and no longer relevant to some of the subject matter. We then have discussions and i feel that the students feel more bought in to the lessons as they can participate in the direction of their education, and participate more.

I also use that discussions for assessment purposes, so that everyone has the responsability to participate in the discussion.