Stop Killing Students With PowerPoint

STOP

Killing Your Students with PowerPoint

can be highly boring for your students and should only be used by authorised PowerPoint Teachers

Warning

PowerPoint

Its my duty to warn you

How to avoid

a Slow Death by PowerPoint

(No students were harmed during the making of this presentation)

The Top Cardinal Sins

Cardinal Sin 1

The Script

The problem is that most people speak at

150 WPM

Yet most people read at

250 WPM

1. Some teachers like to put every single thing they are going to say on their slides. Although this means that you do not have to remember what to say on your slides. This makes your slides boring, text heavy and causes your students eyes to glaze over, the mobile phones come out and the fidgeting begins. They begin to wonder why they are even listening to you as they have already used up all their brain power reading ahead and drawing their own conclusions. All this before you even reach the bottom of your. . .

Common PowerPoint Mistakes

1. Continued - first slide

Cardinal Sin 2

Dodging Bullets

Example

This is a Very Important Slide

In case you had not understood the fact that this is a very important slide from the heading I am going to make sure that you read the information again in many different ways

The problem with very important slides (VIS) is that you try to get as much information on to them as possible

Because as we all know in teaching you can’t just say something once you have to make sure its said or shown three times in three different ways to get the same message across!

That way the little blighters can’t say you did not tell them

The sad thing is this causes Teachers to use PowerPoint's with lots of different levels and bullet points to put across the same key message (over and over again!)

Here it is again – I am important – read me!

Have you got the point yet

Please remember I am important too even if I am a third level bullet point

It does not matter how many different ways you try to cram the information in

Nobody is going to read it anyway

So its all pretty pointless

And you end up wasting your time

Want students to read ? Give it to them on paper! A slide is not the place to do it

Whoopee!

Phew is that it now?

Not exactly exciting is it?

To a student this is a signal to

Followed with a sprinkling of these

And time to catch up on

Avoid

Using

Too

Many

Bullet

Points

To

Try

To

Get

Your

Message

Across

To

Your

Class

Too

Many

And

Your

Key

Messages

Will

Be

Lost

In Fact

The

Term

Bullet

Point

Comes

From

The act

Of students

Pointing

Guns at

The

Annoying

Teacher

Ditch the bullet points!

Cardinal Sin 3

Spell Checks

Many Teachers do not even run a spell cheek before their presentation!

BIG MISTAK – Nothing makes you look more stupid that selling errrs

Cardinal Sin 4

People who love data

Think that more is better ?

More Data

Effectiveness

Lets demonstrate this

By adding more!

In some desperate attempt

To convince you of their point

Cardinal Sin 5

Bad Colour Schemes

Clashing backgrounds and font colours can lead to

Thumping headache

Motion sickness

Distraction

Unexplained rashes

Mental confusion

Continual fidgeting

Loss of bladder control

Cardinal Sin 6

Animation

Can be good

For visual learners

Animation Can be effective But use too much And you end up with your students Going WOW! This is just so cool And not actually Taking Any notice Of what You are trying to say

And your PowerPoint becomes this

Animation Blah Boring Like this one? WOW! Look at me Woo Hoo Wheee Yawn Fidget Blah Blah Blah

More Animation

Less Effect

So how do you get away from mindless text and bullets?

Example

We’ve all heard the proverb

A picture is

words

Taken from an example of a real GCSE Business lesson

Businesses have benefited in the following ways:

Reduction in storage space and costs as materials are Just In Time (JIT)

Increased output as new technology and techniques allow businesses to increase production

Increased labour productivity as new techniques and technologies enable workers to be more productive

Increased quality as robots produce to a higher standard

Automation has decreased production down-time – no tea breaks, 24hr a day working

New technology is expensive

Can lead to redundancies

Demand for skilled workers increases

Money into education to equip the next workforce with the right skills

GCSE Unit 4f – Economic and Technological forces

Doesn’t it make you feel like this?

Let’s break it down

Technological Forces

Manufacturing products only when ordered (JIT)

I n c r e a s e s

Output & production

Productivity

Demand for skilled workers

Skills education for workforce

Technology costs

Quality

D e c r e a ses

Costs and storage space

Production downtime storage space

Jobs (redundancies) storage space

Its all there except

You nor the students read it!

computer Sometimes the best slides have no text at all

Have you got it yet?

Less is more

Communication involves emotions

If you can’t explain it short and simple

Then you don’t understand it

This is bad communication

Businesses have benefited in the following ways:

Reduction in storage space and costs as materials are Just In Time (JIT)

Increased output as new technology and techniques allow businesses to increase production

Increased labour productivity as new techniques and technologies enable workers to be more productive

Increased quality as robots produce to a higher standard

Automation has decreased production down-time – no tea breaks, 24hr a day working

New technology is expensive

Can lead to redundancies

Demand for skilled workers increases

Money into education to equip the next workforce with the right skills

GCSE Unit 4f – Economic and Technological forces

This is good communication

Only use images that match your message

… and evoke emotion

Too much text & data is

bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad

bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad

bad

bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad

bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad

bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad bad

Never use clipart!

L i m i t

Your

Words

Per

Slide

Less text and data is

G d

Make only ONE point per slide

Dodge the bullets

Don’t use bad colour schemes

Check your spelling

Use pictures

Try

http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/

Now its your turn

2

Killing your students

Don McMillan (life after death by Powerpoint)

Death by PowerPoint (and how to fight it) by Alexei Kapterev

Dodging bullets in presentations by Rowan Manahan (fortifyservices. Blogspot.com)

Flikr-Storm

www.slideshare.net

www.google.co.uk/images

Music from www.freeplaymusic.com track – “Warped”

Music from www.freeplaymusic.com track – “She will stop”

Music from www.freeplaymusic.com track – “Misfit”

With Thanks To

Stop Killing Students With PowerPoint

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