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Technology Integration

1) The document provides 8 tips for creating effective classroom presentations using technology like PowerPoint. The tips include using as many slides as needed to convey information, minimizing wordiness on slides, maximizing visuals, reducing distracting elements, using large clear text and images, highlighting the part of the slide being discussed, using transitions between slides, and repeating key points for emphasis. 2) The goal of presentation slides is to aid the teacher in conveying information to students in a memorable way, not to replace the teacher. Slides should support what is being said through clear visuals and minimal text. 3) Proper use of slides, including enough but not too many, visually engaging content, and highlighting

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49 views

Technology Integration

1) The document provides 8 tips for creating effective classroom presentations using technology like PowerPoint. The tips include using as many slides as needed to convey information, minimizing wordiness on slides, maximizing visuals, reducing distracting elements, using large clear text and images, highlighting the part of the slide being discussed, using transitions between slides, and repeating key points for emphasis. 2) The goal of presentation slides is to aid the teacher in conveying information to students in a memorable way, not to replace the teacher. Slides should support what is being said through clear visuals and minimal text. 3) Proper use of slides, including enough but not too many, visually engaging content, and highlighting

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© © All Rights Reserved
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TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION

8 Tips to Power-Up Your Classroom Presentations


By  Jason Cranford Teague
November 12, 2013

Image credit: iStockphoto

Last month, I attended a Back to School Night for parents,


sitting through presentation after presentation by teachers,
some with slides that helped make their presentation a
delight to listen to, and others . . . well, that's why I'm writing
this blog post.

The goal of a classroom presentation is to aid you in


effectively conveying information in a way that allows
students (or their parents) to remember what you said.
Unfortunately, for some, the presentation becomes a crutch,
and they begin to rely on the slides to tell their story, rather
than to help them tell the story.
I've been creating presentations using software like
PowerPoint and KeyNote for 20 years, and I've learned a lot
about how to most effectively communicate. Here's what I've
found.

1. Use as Many Slides as You Need


It's a common myth that better presentations use fewer
slides. This is simply not the case. I once sent an education
conference presentation to the organizers so they could
preview it in advance of my speaking. They wrote back,
concerned that my 45-minute presentation had 116 slides. I
looked it over and realized they were right! I revised it and
sent a presentation with 135 slides back to them. I finished
my talk with 5 minutes to spare -- just enough time to take
questions -- and the presentation was a huge success.

The number of slides in your presentation is irrelevant. What


matters is how well your slides communicate and how much
time you spend talking about each slide. Spending five
minutes on five slides will almost always be more engaging
to your students than spending five minutes on a single
slide, even when the information is exactly the same.

In the movie Amadeus, the Emperor of Austria complains to


Mozart that his music has "too many notes." Mozart
responds, "There are just as many notes as are required.
Neither more nor less." Use as many slides as you need to
make your point. No more. No less.

Credit: Jason Cranford Teague


Figure 1. There are almost 90 slides for "Trust Me, I'm A Designer," but it only takes me about 45 minutes to
deliver it.

2. Minimize Verbosity
Your slides are there to support what you are saying, not to
say it for you. Keep your word count low, and only place one
main point on a slide, plus three to five sub-points if
absolutely needed. Remember tip #1 above -- don't be afraid
to use more slides. They're free! Also, the language in your
slides doesn't need to be in complete sentences. Pare the
text to as few words as possible, using what's there only to
emphasize and reinforce -- not replace -- the words coming
out of your mouth.

Credit: Jason Cranford Teague


Figure 2. Your students will remember more when they have to read fewer words.

3. Maximize Visuals
Photos, figures and icons work as visual memory triggers.
They help your students remember what it is you're saying.
Any time you can add a visual that helps illustrate or
reinforce the points you're making in your slides, you should
use it. One great way to do this on the cheap is to use public
domain or creative commons photos you can find
on Flickr or Google.

4. Reduce Noise
Many teachers like to add banners, headers, footers, page
numbers and more noise to their slides. Unless the
information needs to be on every slide for a vital reason
(which is rare), you should remove it. All these redundant
elements do is create distractions from the content of your
slides. I find this to be especially true of page numbers.
Imagine if a movie included a time code at the bottom,
constantly reminding you how long you had been watching.
All this does is serve to take the viewer out of the moment.
Page numbers in slides really don't provide any useful
information -- they just remind your students how long
they've been watching.

5. Go BIG
Pursuant to tips #1 and #2, you're not going to win awards
by cramming the most content on the fewest slides. Make
text and visuals as large as you can. Not only does this
make them easier to see and read, but larger images and
text make a greater impact to aid memory. There's nothing
wrong with filling an entire slide with a photo, and then
placing text right on top. You may have to use a transparent
background immediately behind the text so that it's clearly
readable, but the overall effect is almost always more
memorable than just some text beside an image.

Credit: The Old Adalie Plain


Figure 3. Text with image gets the point across . . .
Credit: The Old Adalie Plain
Figure 4. . . .but use larger text and larger images for full impact.

6. Highlight What You Are Talking About


While you are presenting, your students may be momentarily
distracted taking notes, thinking about what you are saying,
glancing out the window, possibly even daydreaming. When
they refocus on your slides, though, they need to quickly pick
back up where you are, or you risk losing them again.

 Use contrast or call-outs to clearly show the area of the


slide you are talking about.

 Reveal bullet points or table rows one at a time so that the


last one visible is the one you are talking about.

 Use arrows, circles or other pointers to show what you are


referencing in specific parts of an illustration, photo or
graph.

 Animate and reveal parts of illustrations and graphs


(where possible) to build your story rather than showing
everything at once.

 Use bold type or different colors to highlight the keywords


in any lengthy text.
Credit: Jason Cranford Teague
Figure 5. I'm using a red box to highlight what I'm talking about in the image.

7. Transition Changes
Humans suffer from an affliction called change blindness -- we
have a hard time seeing changes unless there is a clear
transition between the states. This is especially a problem in
presentations where slides may look very much alike. Most
programs include transitions that can be used between
slides or on elements in the slides themselves.
My favorite transition is the cross-dissolve -- where the first
slide fades down while the next slide fades up -- but different
transitions can help illustrate points in your presentation. Are
you talking about combustion or the fire of London? Use a
flame transition. Talking about photography or Hollywood
movies? Use the flashbulb transition. Even "cheesy"
transitions help overcome change blindness and aid student
memory at the same time.

8. Repeat Yourself Redundantly


It’s OK to repeat the same slide more than once -- especially
when using images -- if you are reminding students of an
earlier point. Obviously, this is not a license to be
monotonous. However, if you want to tie separate ideas
together, emphasize a point or splash in a little comic relief,
it's perfectly fine to repeat a slide.

Bonus Tip: Make it Funny!


There's little doubt that emotional responses can aid
memory. While it can be difficult to apply this power in a
classroom slide presentation, humor is easy enough, and
adding a bit of levity to your presentations at the right points
can work to give students vital memory hooks.

Last Word
Remember, the point of presentation slides is not to replace
you as the teacher, but to help your students understand and
remember what you are teaching. Overwhelming them with
too much information can be just as harmful as
underwhelming them with too little.

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