So how do you plan to reach people? 90% of you said you plan to use PowerPoint. It’s a little known historical fact that PowerPoint was also used during the revolutionary period. Historians these days have many more tools at their hands, and recently they uncovered the following.
In July 1776, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Samuel Chase, went back to his home state of Maryland, to provide people with information on the newly signed document and inspire them to join the cause. While riding his carriage back home, he sketched out his plans. Then he went to the capitol of Annapolis, borrowed a laptop and LCD, and shared this presentation.
Problems with this presentation: Doesn’t consider what the audience wants to hear Repetitive bullets Poor slide layout (pictures of Peyton Randolph, John Hancock, Henry Laurens, and Ben Franklin)
This presentation may inform, but it doesn’t motivate. When I did a session like this with NAF staff, I paused and did an exercise. I asked them each to ketch out a graphic that represents their presentation, or a sample slide. This was to get them out of the box of what they usually do, so they don’t become PowerPoint monkeys.
What’s a PowerPoint monkey?
A PowerPoint monkey is someone who uses the software without realizing it’s a tool—like flip charts or chalkboards. If you’re using PowerPoint, the last thing you should create is your slide. REPEAT.
You have a whole bunch of media available to you in the session. “Media” means different mediums of interacting with participants. There’s the audience. There’s you. There may be flip charts. Maybe you’re giving away handouts. People have pens and paper. And PowerPoint. It’s one tool of many. And it’s just a tool, like a chalkboard is to a classroom. With all these things going on in the room, don’t make it all about your slides. The first thing you should do is generate your ideas. Share what I did. Also, the following are some basic principles applicable to all slide presentations.
First principles
How’s this slide?
Or this?
Or this? All in the same presentation. Slide after slide. If this is your presentation, don’t bother. Just give people a handout.
Take a look at an example from one of last year’s sessions.
Share this Don’t overload people’s visual channels. Make the picture clean and simple.
Here’s another example from last year. If you can’t get it in five seconds, there’s too much on it. Even if you talk through it, the listener can’t process both words and images effectively. People tend to try to figure out what’s in front of them, which means they won’t truly capture what you’re saying. Better to summarize in a clear way what these results were, and keep these tables in a report.
Here’s an example of a design that shows a point clearly and without a lot of visual overload.
Share this Don’t overload people’s visual channels. Make the picture clean and simple.
Just to repeat
But of course, you’re not going to want to do this. There are reasons why people do the basic bulleted PowerPoint slides. It takes a lot less time. It’s more difficult to think through the storyline you would like to relate in your session. And some of you are pretty confident that you do it well. But here are the reasons to think very critically and figure out how you can do the best presentation possible.
![[object Object],[object Object],WHAT TOPICS SHOULD NAF PRESENT IN 2011? WHAT WORKSHOPS HAVE YOU FOUND COMPELLING? WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO PRESENT? WHAT PRESENTATION METHODS HAVE YOU FOUND EFFECTIVE? ACADEMY STRUCTURE CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION ADVISORY BOARD WORK-BASED LEARNING ACADEMY STRUCTURE CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION ADVISORY BOARD WORK-BASED LEARNING Interested in Presenting in 2011?](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/slides2-110427144210-phpapp02/85/slides2-1-320.jpg)
