Edify Ministries®
Building up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12)
Edify Ministries®Building up the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12)
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Using PowerPointHere are some of my personal "guidelines" for building multi-media (especially PowerPoint) presentations for the classroom or online use. 1. Never ever use graphics for decoration. Be this pictures or borders, or what ever. Adding a cute little mouse or fancy border on each frame is very distracting -- It actually decreases the information transfer to the audience. If you use a cute sea shore motif for an hour long presentation, the audience will enjoy the first few frames, but soon get sick of it. Busy people are looking for content don't distract them with what is trite or cute. 2. Every graphic and, to the extent possible, every part of every graphic must contain information that relates directly to the subject at hand. If one is talking about the structure of a daisy blossom, then a drawing of a daisy should be included on that frame. Better yet, as you discuss each part of the blossom, have it take its place in what will be complete picture by the end of the presentation. 3. Be very careful with color. Use as few as possible. Let the color add content to the message. I have a presentation that uses blue and red to contrast biblical and systematic theology. Every place that blue is used, the audience knows that this has having a bearing on biblical theology. Granted this can be over done. But you can do a lot without getting near the limits. 4. The same sorts of concepts apply to audio or movie clips that may be included in the presentation. These must also have a text version available if your presentation is going to be accessible to the deaf or blind. My basic rules are: Do not include a voice clip unless the inflection in the speakers voice is critical to the meaning. Do not include a video clip unless some precise motion or coordination of motions is critical to the message. In both cases a textual explanation needs to be available to meet accessibility requirements. 5. I like to build a "picture" or chart one element at a time. My best presentations have only a title slide, an ending slide and one slide that builds a complex concept one element at a time. The screen starts out blank, then on each mouse click a new element is added. I use an occasional sound or other special effect every once in while to draw special attention to an important element. Do this less then 10% of the time or it will loose its effect and become a distraction instead of an enhancement. 6. There are basically three ways to use a PowerPoint presentation. A. Support a "sage on a stage" (lecturer). Here the sage appears as the SME (subject matter expert) and uses PowerPoint to display pre-written lists, pictures, etc. This allows the sage to increase retention, by helping his auditors follow the flow of the presentation and by seeing illustrations, charts and pictures instead of just hearing words. This is a good a valid use of PowerPoint. If the slides are clean, simple and neat they do enhance retention. This use of PowerPoint is quick and easy to do. B. Present the subject matter. Here the PowerPoint presentation becomes the "SME" and the professor is a "guide by my side" (mentor). The ratio of build to present time for these can easily exceed 100:1. If done well, they are worth every minute of it! The PowerPoint presentation carries the content which is commented on, or enhanced by the presenter if needed. The learners can then replay the presentation until they fully grasp all the little nuances, and are fully in possession of the content. C. Serve as a teleprompter for the sage on a stage which is also visible to his listeners. Basically the lecturer reads the content of the slides to audience with occasional side comments. This can help the sage cover a lot of content by keeping both sides of the lectern on task. It also helps retention because the material is being presented to the eyes as well as the ears. It can assist a listener who "tunes out" for a while to come back and pick up with the lecture. For use in any time zone, anywhere, education, method B is the method of choice. It
will need to be supported by textual material that explains each piece as it is
added to the picture. This use of PowerPoint makes a wonderful
springboard for exciting discussions. October 11, 1996 Last updated 12/11/01 |
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