Stop Killing Students With PowerPoint

Q. What's worse than a boring lesson, filled with PowerPoint slides?

A. A VLE crammed with PowerPoint slides from a boring lesson.

*sigh*

Posted by Sarah Horrigan at 9:45 AM http://kindalearning.blogspot.com/2009/05/boredom-x-2.html

STOP
Killing Your Students with PowerPoint

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

Warning

PowerPoint

It’s 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 have 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 it’s 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
Finger 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

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

Try to avoid clipart!

L i m i t

Your
Words
Per
Slide

Less text and data is

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 it’s your turn

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

www.prezi.com (free educational accounts – up to 100 users)
Keynotes – also available for iphone/ ipad
www.animoto.com (free educational accounts)
Microsoft Photo Story (free download)
Alternatives to PowerPoint

http://teachers.saschina.org	7851
http://btt1o1.wikispaces.com	6515
http://www.elearning-russia.ru	1975
http://leifh.blogspot.com	1337
http://elearning.stjulians.com	1305
http://www.70man.com	1138
https://cygnus.cc.kuleuven.be	1126
http://presentazioniefficaci.wordpress.com	936
http://www.ksuenglish.net	837
http://presentazioniefficaci.splinder.com	705
http://joquettajohnson.com	650
http://www.slideshare.net	381
http://gradpost.ucsb.edu	354
http://blog.teachable.net	349
http://www.catepol.net	309
http://www.karelgeenen.nl	259
http://virpiloi.blogspot.com	196
https://phtt6.wikispaces.com	173
http://arabic-cloclo-g6.blogspot.com	162
http://abelmoodle.abel.yorku.ca	158
http://community.greatspeaker.org	141
http://grade7ola.blogspot.com	139
http://pagi.wdfiles.com	133
http://learningmastery.org	125
http://alamin99.wordpress.com	120
http://www.grade7ola.blogspot.com	103
http://www.wiskundeleraar.nl	96
http://www.rapsli.ch	95
http://moodle.abel.yorku.ca	94
http://blog.weber.k12.ut.us	89
http://denitza.wordpress.com	82
http://tnt54.wordpress.com	80
http://facendoerifacendo.wordpress.com	77
http://leifh.blogspot.no	74
http://dumais.wikispaces.com	60
https://vision.hw.ac.uk	50
http://kovsiktkurs.wikispaces.com	47
http://ccssdidactica.blogspot.com	46
http://elancoetc.blogspot.com	46
http://localhost	46
http://elearning-russia.ru	45
http://capitalcomtech.info	41
http://postgradovirtual.blogspot.com	40
http://www.mostlikelytodiealone.com	37
http://managewrite.pbworks.com	35
http://www.fachak.com	35
http://ultraperiferias.blogspot.com	34
http://moodle.yrdsb.ca	33
http://wijnand.baretta.nu	33
http://virpiloi.blogspot.fi	33
http://leejackson.org	31

Stop Killing Students With PowerPoint

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