PowerPoint originated as presentation software created by Forethought, Inc. and was later acquired by Microsoft. It allows users to create slide-based presentations incorporating text, graphics, videos and other objects. Effective use of PowerPoint as a teaching tool can engage students through visual elements and interactivity, though it also risks becoming teacher-centered or reducing complex topics. Presenters should consider pedagogical strategies that promote active learning and critical thinking when using PowerPoint.

1. Effective Use of PowerPoint as a
presentation tool.

2. History
• Originally designed for the Macintosh computer, the
initial release was called "Presenter", developed by
Dennis Austin and Thomas Rudkin of Forethought,
Inc. In 1987, it was renamed to "PowerPoint" due to
problems with trademarks, the idea for the name
coming from Robert Gaskins. In August of the same
year, Forethought was bought by Microsoft for $14
million USD ($28.6 million in present-day terms), and
became Microsoft's Graphics Business Unit, which
continued to develop the software further. PowerPoint
was officially launched on May 22, 1990, the same day
that Microsoft released Windows 3.0.

3. • PowerPoint changed significantly with PowerPoint 97.
Prior to PowerPoint 97, presentations were linear,
always proceeding from one slide to the next.
PowerPoint 97 incorporated the Visual Basic for
Applications (VBA) language, underlying all macro
generation in Office 97, which allowed users to invoke
pre-defined transitions and effects in a non-linear
movie-like style without having to learn programming.
• PowerPoint 2000 (and the rest of the Office 2000 suite)
introduced a clipboard that could hold multiple objects
at once. Another change was that the Office Assistant
was changed to be less intrusive.

4. • PowerPoint (© Microsoft Corp.) is a widely used
presentation programme that
• originated in the world of business but has now
become commonplace in the
• world of educational technology. However, its use is far
from controversial in
• this educational context and opinions as to its use
range from highly
• supportive to significantly negative (Szabo & Hastings,
2000; Lowry, 2003).
• One of the major problems is that its current use is
frequently limited to an
• information transmission mode, often with excessive
content, a usage that

5. • obscures the wider potential for diverse professional and
pedagogically-sound
• presentations. I have been using PowerPoint to deliver all
appropriate classes
• since 1996, as well as delivering staff development sessions
on both the
• programme and the pedagogy of its use. It is my contention
that it is a
• valuable aid to presentation providing that its use has been
carefully
• considered in terms of pedagogy. This paper examines
some of the key
• issues that must be considered at both an individual and
an organizational
• level.

6. Operation
• PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of
individual pages or "slides". The "slide" analogy is a
reference to the slide projector. A better analogy would
be the "foils" (or transparencies/plastic sheets) that are
shown with an overhead projector, although they are
in decline now. Slides may contain text, graphics,
sound, movies, and other objects, which may be
arranged freely. The presentation can be printed,
displayed live on a computer, or navigated through at
the command of the presenter. For larger audiences
the computer display is often projected using a video
projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts.

7. • PowerPoint provides three types of movements:
• Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a
slide itself are controlled by what PowerPoint
calls Custom Animations.
• Transitions, on the other hand, are movements
between slides. These can be animated in a
variety of ways.
• Custom animation can be used to create small
story boards by animating pictures to enter, exit
or move.

8. Microsoft Power Point
• Microsoft PowerPoint is the name of
a proprietary commercial software presentation
program developed by Microsoft. It was
developed by Microsoft and officially launched on
May 22, 1990. It is part of the Microsoft
Office suite, and runs on Microsoft
Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating
system. The current versions are Microsoft Office
PowerPoint 2010 for Windows and Microsoft
Office PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

9. What is PowerPoint?
• PowerPoint is a complete presentation
graphics package. It gives you everything you
need to produce a professional-looking
presentation. PowerPoint offers word
processing, outlining, drawing, graphing, and
presentation management tools- all designed
to be easy to use and learn.

10. Advantages
• Potential benefits of using presentation graphics
include:
• Engaging multiple learning styles
• Increasing visual impact
• Improving audience focus
• Providing annotations and highlights
• Analyzing and synthesizing complexities
• Enriching curriculum with interdisciplinarity
• Increasing spontaneity and interactivity
• Increasing wonder

11. Challenges
• Although there are many potential benefits to PowerPoint,
there are several issues that could create problems or
disengagement:
• Teacher-centered. Students often respond better when
instructors have designed sessions for greater classroom
interaction, such as the use of student response clickers,
designing PowerPoint to facilitate case studies, or use the
slides as a replacement for paper worksheets.
• Lack of feedback. PowerPoint-based lectures tell you
nothing about student learning. Design them to include
opportunities for feedback (not simply asking if there are
questions, but more actively quizzing your students). This
often takes the form of listing questions, not information,
on the slides themselves.

12. • Student inactivity. Slide shows do little to model how students
should interact with the material on their own. Include student
activities or demonstrations to overcome this, either before or after
the slideshow presentation.
• Potentially reductive. PowerPoint was designed to promote simple
persuasive arguments. Design for critical engagement, not just for
exposure to a “point.”
• Presentation graphics should be about learning, not about
presentation.
• PowerPoint presentations should help students organize their
notes, not just “be” the notes. This is a particular danger with
students who grew up accustomed to receiving PowerPoint notes
to study from. Some may require convincing that notes should be
taken beyond what is already on the slides.

13. • PowerPoint can be an effective visual tool to
present material to your audience. At the
same time, it can be a distraction to your
students when used improperly. It’s
important to understand some basic principles
regarding PowerPoint visuals and presentation
to help make your lecture more effective and
understandable.

14. • The use of PowerPoint for teaching presentations has
considerable potential for
• encouraging more professional presentations. This
paper reviews the advantages
• and disadvantages associated with its use in a
teaching and learning context and
• suggests some guidelines and pedagogical strategies
that need to be considered
• where it is to be used. It summarizes some of the key
principles of presentation that
• are frequently ignored and suggests some of the
approaches that need to be

15. • incorporated into good practice in Life Science
teaching and learning. Its use is often
• limited to an information transmission mode
and this paper emphasizes that this is a
• very restricted pedagogical use of a very
powerful and flexible teaching and learning
• support tool.

16. Some good reasons to use PowerPoint
• So why should you consider using PowerPoint
for your teaching and learning
activities? There are many reasons but the key
ones include:
• Appropriate use of PowerPoint can enhance
the teaching and learning
• experience for both staff and students

17. • It provides encouragement and support to staff by
facilitating the structuring of
• a presentation in a professional manner. The templates
provided have been
• designed to default to good presentation criteria such
as the number of lines
• of information per slide and appropriate font sizes and
types, etc: using the
• styles of the default templates can significantly
improve the clarity and
• structuring of a presentation. This helps to avoid the
common use of
• excessive text often found on overhead transparencies.

18. Benefits for students
• This format is attractive to students, and it
appeals to students' diverse learning styles, such
as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and creative by
employing multimedia methods, such as sounds,
images, color, action, design, and so on.
• PowerPoint assists collaborative learning in
group projects by involving every student in the
learning and teaching processes. It empowers
students to be in charge of their own learning,
and offers them opportunities to demonstrate
their work.

19. • It has a spell-check function, which
blackboards do not have.
• Students who are absent from class can go
through the content by watching PowerPoint
presentations, allowing them to learn at home
and not fall behind. Sounds and motions can
help them to understand the important points
in a lesson.

20. Benefits for teachers
• Teachers can use PowerPoint presentations to
enhance the effectiveness of classroom
instruction in many ways and in every subject
area.
• The greatest advantage of using PowerPoint in
the classroom is that teachers can modify lessons
and use them over and over again. Therefore,
teachers save time on handing out instructional
material, writing on blackboard, repeated speech
and so on.

21. • PowerPoint can enrich the information in a
lesson, and make the presentation more
organized and flexible.
• Main points can be emphasized by using
graphics, animation and sound.
• PowerPoint can be used for content review.