POWERPOINT IN THE CLASSROOM

Tech Talk – April 2010

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Using PowerPoint effectively

Before: What do to before starting During: Some best practices & features After: Presenting/lecturing with

PowerPoint Followup: Enhancements/Alternatives

Before

What to do before starting

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Brainstorm

What's the subject and why does it matter?

What is the desired outcome or action?

What do you want audience to remember?

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Outline

What are the main topics? (brainstorm)

Logical grouping of subtopics

Scalability

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Make an outline

Word demo

OmniOutliner Mac

Google Docs PowerPoint demo

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Try visual brainstorming

Stimulates thinking and taps creativity

Ideas are recorded quickly and represented visually

Popular applications MindManager Inspiration

Webspiration beta

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Some best practices for slideshows

During

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Keep it simple

Fewer slides Less text Simple slide transitions

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Text

On a screen a sans serif font (e.g. Arial) will display better than a serif font (e.g. Times).

Use a decent font size. Font size of 28 to 34 for subtitles

Avoid Title Capitalization Avoid long blocks of text

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Color

White background is harder on eyes. Use contrast: light on dark or dark on

light. Use consistent backgrounds

For a long presentation, you may want to change background designs when shifting to a new topic

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Graphics

Graphics should make a key concept clearer, otherwise, don’t use them.

Place in similar location within each screen.

Photos of people help people relate Avoid clip art

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Make it enticing!

Try for a memorable opening and closing You can insert video and audio clips into

PowerPoint. You can also insert hyperlinks.

Animation effects can be interesting when used in moderation. Beware of flying bullets

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Some useful features in PowerPoint

During

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Get started

Start from scratch (blank template) Or start with existing template, theme,

or presentation What’s the difference between a

template and a theme?

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Themes

Colors Fonts Backgrounds

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Templates

You can repurpose any presentation file; just rename it

A template is any presentation you plan to reuse Theme Background images Headers and footers Placeholder text

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Slide Layouts

Apply canned layouts Try to apply before typing text

Can move elements around Home > Slides > Reset

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Extras

Headers & Footers Can apply to all or some

Slide sorter Quick Access Toolbar

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Presenting/lecturing with PowerPoint

After

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What do you think?

For what kinds of presentations would PowerPoint not be suitable?

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What do you think?

Does PowerPoint enhance or detract from a presentation and/or lecture?

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Enhancements / Alternatives

Followup

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Share the presentation Slideshare.net Google docs

Narrate it PowerPoint ProfCast iTunes

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http://prezi.com/hgjm18z36h75/why-should-you-move-beyond-slides/