Powerpoints
We teach through powerpoints. A new lecture every week being that it's a vocational school we have alot of lecture to cover making it impossible to have just 5 main points on one slide. What could be another tip to powerpoints and make sure things are being covered and I don't loose the student's focus?
Monica,
I look at it like this: PPT is a tool, and every tool has a specific purpose and use. Using the tool in a fashion unintended will not have the desired results. With PPT slides, if all the information is on the slide, why not just pass out a handout and have students read sections from it? PPT works best with graphics, images, photo's, illustrations, charts, figures, drawings, etc. Therefore, perhaps adding more graphics interspersed with text could help.
For text, there are better ways to present that. For a lecture, having the basic information on the slide that can be elaborated on in more of a discussion is way more interesting and engaging, at least from my experience.
Barry Westling
We too have allot of material to cover. We arrange students in groups each week (they change from week to week) then we limit lectures to 10 minute increments with objectives clearly labeled at the beginning. At 10 minutes we stop lecture and have students participate in discussions relating to objectives covered in the lecture. They have group discussion time of 10 minutes and then we resume lecture. This incorporates a peer review session and also sparks student questions.
We are also using a new presentation software called Prezi. It is innovative and gives an exciting presentation. Educators can set a free account at prezi.com
Only but bullet points on the PP slides. The slides are, in a sense, a guide for you and the students. You are the presenter, not the slides.
Hope this helps.
Rebecca,
This is great. It prevents too much time (or information) from being delivered at one time. Also, I like the timing that students can anticipate the next activity and therefore give themselves to the lesson more fully. We've begun to use Prezi too. It does bring a new dimension to presentations.
Barry Westling
Douglas,
I agree wholeheartedly. There may be some exceptions here and there, but this works best for lecturing. We want to focus on the material to be learned, not the medium that is providing it.
Barry Westling
Powerpoint is just a very handy instructional tool. As an instuctor, you still have to lecture with or without the powerpoint. I only have essential information on my powerpoint which I also give to the students. During lecture, I tell them what to add on their PP copy.
Sona,
Great. This sounds like how PPT can be blended into the lecture without it being a distration but adding to the presentation.
Barry Westling
Thank you for the Intro to Prezi, it seems like a great option. With my PP presentations I always make sure that the students have a study guide to follow along with. In the study guide they have blank spaces some of them are filled in from the presentation, and some are from what I tell them. It helps keeps their attention and also engages them in the lecture.
David ,
This is a good way to involve multiple senses and to keep attention, all the while students are progressing in their knowledge and understanding of the course material.
Barry Westling
I have created a lot of PowerPoints for business presentations and the guidelines are the same. Use the bullet points as a guide, don't just read them. You can elaborate on each point, but think of them as guideposts to keep you and the students on the same track. They can follow the points and have an idea where this part of the lecture is going. But having too much text or too many points on the slides causes the students to be reading the entire time you are talking and they will not retain either very well.
Paul,
Very true. I really think PPT is used inappropriately much of the time. Sometimes, students learn in spite of the measures we take to try educate them.
Barry Westling
Monica,
Thank you for starting a wonderful topic, all comments are very useful and I have more ideas on how to use PPT more effectively.
I agree. It should be used as a guideline for your lecture and is great for bridging ideas together. Also a very useful tool if keeping time is a problem, is displaying the clock counter that is only visible on your screen and not displayed to students.
Jerry,
The clock counter is a great instructor resource. For me, I am often previewing just a couple of slides, then moving into a discussion mode with whiteboard, case examples and practice exercises, then back to the PPT slides, so a counter is not always as helpful. But the clock counter is helpful when all of the discussion is more of a slide after slide kind of activity.
Barry Westling
