I am an instructor of cooking and we use the phones in class to look up why things might fail or the science of the cooking. They seem to have a little fun and they remember it a little better also.

Our students want to feel like they are our top priority. This is very important to them or they will start to think they are wasting their time and money.

I try to find out one thing special about each of my students so that weekly I can ask them about that subject. They will even come speak to me after they have left my class on numerous occasions because they know I care about them.  There are a handful of other instructors that do the same thing and the students talk to their classmates about how much they appreciate… >>>

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… >>>