Sunday, May 23, 2010

Large classes, and INTERACTIVE powerpoint

Hi

Wow what a week! We are facing the end of a semester and it was really hectic. In addition I had to travel to Cape Town. The learning this week was interesting.

I’d never liked PPT. The worst punishment was listening to a presenter reading from their slides, expecting me to stay awake or worst, show interest. Most of the time, I would leave a presentation and just ask for a copy of the presentation. I never thought PPT can be interactive or very effective to be part of my lecturers. Since I never liked boring presentations, I had no desire to use it.
However, I’ve learnt PPT can be a very useful tool as part of the class. I can use PPT to continue class outside class use as part of the tutorials. This is great in that it allows the discussion/work to continue outside class. In Incorporating Multimedia in Your Teaching, the author states that we need to include as many of the learning strategies to teach as many of the learning preferences. The author further stated that 65% students are visual, 35% auditory and 5% kinaesthetic learners. Since the majority of learners need visual stimulation, proper use of PPT can be effectively incorporated to enhance learning. PPT further highlights/ illustrates speech and does not replace handouts. Another advantage is that it allows you to include a variety of media; sounds, videos, music, etc., to enhance teaching and learning. PPT can further include interactive games using action buttons. This amkes PPT a very useful tool indeed.
Best Practices in Presenting with PPT, presents any user with very useful tips on creating quality PPT. The fonts are classed as Serif; with tails like Times News Roman and Georgia best used for large amounts of text and Sans Serif fonts; no tails like Arial used for small amounts of text. Secondly the size of the font must be big enough to be read from any angle by all in the class. A size 36 was presented as suitable for the body text. Also Arial and Times New Roman was presented as the better font options. I further learnt to keep to (7/7)25 rule: 7 words, 7 sentences not more than 25 words per slide. It is advised to keep the slides as simple as possible yet interesting .I liked the fact that the author emphasised the fact that PPT should accompany the lecture and not dominate the lecture/class. Before presenting your PPT lesson, make sure to practice, knowing your moves before presenting the lesson to a class.
I’ve learnt that PPT, if used interactively, can be an effective lesson aid. I am looking at PPT with new eyes.

Thanks
Jules
REFERENCES:
http://www.uoregon.edu/~tep/technology/powerpoint/powerpoint.html
Best Practices in Presenting with PowerPoint: Teaching Effectiveness Program, Academic Learning Services.

No comments:

Post a Comment