Using PowerPoint for Teaching

? ?

Stephen BostockStaff DevelopmentKeele University

©Keele

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Summary Should we teach with presentations? PowerPoint in/supporting lectures

Supporting student activity Refining presentations

Some PowerPoint facilities Tips for preparation Advantages and disadvantages of

presentation slides

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as effective as other media

not effective

not very effective

What’s the use of lectures?Donald Bligh 1972 … His review of research into what

(traditional) lectures might be good for:

transmitting information ?

promoting thought ?

changing student attitudes ?

4Lecturing to large groupsAndreson 1990Faced with bigger classes and/or more classes,

two responses are possible for lectures

Refinement as theatre: enhance style, techniques, presentation skills & technology

Augmentation with student activity, feedback, dialogue, using other media

better pre

sentations

less ‘lect

uring’

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Uses for PowerPoint In “Refinement”

Effective delivery of information Structured note-making Efficient for staff (in long run)

In “Augmentation” Support student activity in

lecture periods with questions, interactive handouts, …

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Selecting mediaSome or all of Displays using

(35mm slides) Acetates (LCD panel with overhead projector) Digital projector, fixed or portable Interactive whiteboard

Paper handouts in various forms Web pages in various forms - accessibility

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Presentation slides Provide clear, readable text In attractive colours, designs The consistency helps

understanding Can append during a lecture, make

dynamic and responsive Automatic numbering, footers,

administrative information helps filing

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Pictures, charts

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1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

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Video/sound

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HandoutsNote-taking is passive, boring and inefficient

- look at their notes! So, for example ... Full handouts of slides for accuracy

and to save time, especially diagrams Semi-notes with missing content;

unlabelled diagrams, empty tables, bullets - instruct students to complete them

Skeleton notes of structure + keywords - students to add detail during the lecture

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Web versions Make presentation accessible to

students before or after lecture(Accessibility required from 2002/3)

With full versions of slides for reference, colour, animation, etc.

You could include lecturer’s notes As an Acrobat (pdf) file, handouts

are ready for printing

12Tips for better presentations Prepare:

Know your audience, the room, lighting control, equipment

Acetates backup (?) Design easily understood charts,

graphs, pictures, diagrams Rehearse – use the PowerPoint

rehearsal feature for timing

13Summary: advantages of presentation software1. Clear, legible text2. Information in well structured chunks3. Images, diagrams, charts done easily4. Handouts are copies of screens but can

have gaps, questions, space for notes5. Use the same slides on a digital

projector, acetates, web pages, handouts6. Use different selections of slides for

modifying presentations, reusing slides

Summary: disadvantages of presentation

software

Some ready-made designs

are too complex and print badly

It imposes a modular structure of slides and bullets - can fragment an argument or story

Drawings are time-consuming,

(but photo images are easy)

Keeping versions for handouts and screen, or hiding some slides or

objects

All content can look the

same, boring,death by

PowerPoint

Learning to use it!

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The end

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References Lee Andreson, Lecturing to large groups, in C.

Rust, Teaching in Higher Education, 1990, SCED Paper 57, ISBN 0946815178

Donald Bligh, What’s the use of lectures? Exeter: Intellect, 1998, 5th ed.

Phil Race, The Lecturer’s Toolkit, 2001 Kogan Page Paul Ramsden, Learning to teach in Higher

Education, 1992, Routledge, ISBN 0-415-06415-5 www.umist.ac.uk/apt/ for presentation technology Designing Slide Presentations for Adults

by Raymond W. Barclay Jr. and Nancy G. Wyatt