Thursday, June 14, 2007

Life by PowerPoint!

Ok, you've all heard by now the expression "Death by PowerPoint". Yup, it's a clever expression and it's also true. As teachers and instructors most of us have used PowerPoint in the classroom. It works for us, but sometimes it doesn't work for the learners. They just see too much of it... and lots of it is just boring and mind-numbing.

I need to constantly remind myself of this. In my teaching life I try to keep PowerPoint to a minimum. However, when I use PowerPoint I have to think of ways in which I can make the PowerPoint better for learners.... not just better for me as the teacher.

Vicky Davis, of 'Cool Cat Teacher Blog' fame, has recently cobbled together some information that provides a good refresher to educational practitioners about creating effective PowerPoint presentations. Everyone could use a refresher, including me.

3 comments:

Valerie said...

Hey it's Valerie (the wiki gal from the EOSET conference). I just discovered your blog, it's so great! :) I will definitely be referring to it as I do research in Educational Technology. Cheers!

Evan said...

I wish powerpoints would disappear off the face of the earth.

They encourage the idea that just because I put something in front of you then you will have learnt it.

They encourage laziness in teachers and usually do nothing for students.

They are a high tech flip chart and nothing more.

While we are trying to get away from chalk and talk powerpoints are even less flexible - you can't erase and explain for the students.

Bah humbug to powerpoint say I!

Anonymous said...

PowerPoint is a great tool to create presentations if you know how to use it right. Converting ppt to flash with iSpring Pro (http://www.ispringsolutions.com)you make it easy to share as well.