1. TEACHING OF CREATING SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Veronika Bubik, Centre for Multimedia and Educational Technology,
Faculty of Sciences, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
bubik.veronika@gmail.com
Scientific Presentations The scientific presentation is an illustration of the is transparent and comply with the rythm of the
scientific lecture. Mostly the lecturers themselves lecture. When we make a presentation, we have
create it, as they create their manuscripts. make sure that it is an obvious supplement of the
lecture, not excessive. It can help the audience The slides are used more often as a replacement
Actually making a presentation is a complex task. take notes, but it should never be meaningless. for lecture notes. They convey information, and
The presentation has to be prepared carefully contain reports and statistical data. A presentation
because every mistake visual or other make it dif- We have to know the meanings of the visual ele- has to be fully understandable even in the ab-
ficult to understand the message of the presenta- ments, and their effects, how they can direct at- sence of the lecturer. From the content aspect its
tion and the lecture. tention and how they help interpretation. The form would be a book or a pamphlet or a type of
presentation has to be right typgraphycally and brochure, but it is read on a computer screen, or
However if it’s perfect, it reflects the information graphically, in this way it’ll be well legible and aes- more often it is projected so formally they are pre-
Hans Rosling’s lecture at a TED Conference
accurately, emphasizes the essence, its structure thetically right, even if it isn’t the primary aim. sentations.
Jill Bolte Taylor’s lecture at a TED Conference
Business Presentations Some other kind of Presentations
Like business presentations scientific ones are
made using PowerPoint. The aim of a business
presentation may be different from the aim of a
scientific one, but more importantly a business
presentation has to be extremely efficient as profit
depends on good communication. Accordingly pre-
sentations and demonstrations have to motivate
the audience by evoking the following states:
ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE, ACTION A presentation about Elvis, from an Elvis fan. It’s awfully A website where anyone can upload and share their own pre-
(AIDA formula) kitschy and every letter in the text moves to the rhythm of sentations.
“ Why The Moon?” recent presentation by NASA. The credits Elvis’ music.
create the impression that this was a very scientific report, orate it and supply it with graphical effects and
In order to achieve these aims they use the tools however it hardly contained any novel information.
There is a third group of presentations. These last but not least animate it extremly. And attach
of visual communication. And because it’s very
Company report brochures for costumers are also slides are put together by amateurs and the topic a voice or music. All of us got „presentations” like
important to be efficient, they hire experts, like
a very much disputed genre. These are full of com- can be anything. They collect pictures from the that via email. These are the products inspired by
for their other sales material. Design studios and
monplace phrases and unnecessary visual elements. internet, mostly complete it with insipid text, dec- the tool it was made with.
advertising agencies offer these services to the
busisness community exactly because making
presentation involves similar processes as making
a book or brochure. It’s a profession. PowerPoint
Types of presentation offered by design studios The most widespread software is Microsoft ’s Pow-
erPoint. It’s worth talking about it a little. The big-
gest advantage of PowerPoint is that it is wide-
Tools spread. PowerPoint is on the most of computers.
(At least in Hungary). So even source files can be
created on one computer andthese will run on
There are plenty of software for mak- sequence of the bubbles or subsets by tell- another one. However, the setup may change be-
ing presentations. Here are some names ing the programme which subset should tween versions which makes it hard to use after an
I came across on the Internet: Beamer, come next in the sequence. This way in- upgrade. Plus presentations may look different on
PowerPoint toolbar and design menu. PowerPoint starting up screen.
KPresenter, MagicPoint, Impress as part of formation can be systematically organised different versions of PowerPoint.
OpenOffice, Powerdot, SimpleSlides (Open more easily because it frees us from the It scales fonts and does bullet pointing. On top of
Nevertheless, the biggest problem with Powerpoint
This is a huge trap.
source). Apple Keynote, Harvard Graph- rigidity of linear order and allow a more that all elements can be animated, sounds and mu-
ics, Corel Presentations (retail). And then global view of the subject. is the philosophy which determines the main fea- sic can be added. You can put in multimedia and can The templates, which are designed without any
tures. Let me explain. You have an empty slide. You make references too. Almost a game and a joy to reference to the type of content once the text and
there are GoogleDocs, 280Slides, or Prezi
can type in some text, add a photo or a picture. complete anything in PowerPoint, the presentation other elements are added create the impression
which can be used from the browser. This freedom makes it easier to prepare a Powerpoint has templates which are created know- can be completed spontaneously. It seems like huge of completeness regardless. Huge problems can be
presentation. However, we need to make ing the rules of typography and graphic elements fun and easy. And then you finished your shiny ani- overlooked if we take these presentations at face
Almost all these programs are based on sure we make our presentation content are added too. The problem is that the user thinks that mated presentation and you’re sure your audience value and don’t scrutinize them deeply.
the tradition of slides used in slide pro- and audience friendly. these templates are all perfect for a presentation. will find it spectacular.
jectors. Slides are shown in a sequence
and make up a slide show. You can choose The complexity and handling of PowerPoint
ready made graphic styles and typographic and other linear presentation making tools
styles from templates. have similar setup and approach. The ad-
vantages of online applicatins is that for ex-
Prezi is different because it has a nonlinear ample in GoogleDocs beside sharing, people
set up. You can put all the information in can contribute and edit the presentations
a pile, and you can make smaller subsets and also, you don’t need to download any Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, center, in Kabul in March.
within the pile. When ready you set the software so anyone can access these. He gets PowerPoint printouts the night before staff meetings.
Let me read you an excerpt from The New York
Times. It is from an article about PowerPoint writ- A PowerPoint diagram meant to portray the complexity of Ameri-
Edward Tufte and the cover of his essay about PowerPoint
“The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts ten by Elisabeth Bumiller. can strategy in Afghanistan certainly succeeded in that aim.
Within”
Edward Tufte american designer, whose expertise Brig. Gen. H. R. McMaster, who banned PowerPoint Commanders say that behind all the PowerPoint
include information design, in his essay about presentations when he led the successful effort to jokes are serious concerns that the program sti-
PowerPoint discusses the flaws that destroy the secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005, fol- fles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful
information we want to convey. He compares lowed up at the same conference by likening Power- decision-making.
PowerPoint to Stalin because it forces our mes- Point to an internal threat. Commanders say that the slides impart less infor-
sage into bullet points, making it schematic and “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of mation than a five-page paper can hold, and that
uninteresting. understanding and the illusion of control,” General they relieve the briefer of the need to polish writ-
McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. ing to convey an analytic, persuasive point.
“Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”
I want to emphasise that there is nothing wrong with the existence of presenta-
tions. But we have to think carefully about when they are appropriate and nec-
essary. Presentations should, for instance, never replace dialogue and debate,
but they are extremely useful in scientific lectures and in education in general.
We have to create the need for accurate and precise presentations and make
280slides.com prezi.com PowerPoint report at NASA
sure that we avoid superficiality at all cost.
How to teach Presentation Skills? Students’ work
First of all we have to find the appropriate sign is a professional program for graphic
tools for creating presentations. designers, typographers, and layout editors. These slides are made during the last academ-
I’ve been teaching presentation making skills The tools are easily accessible, very simple ic year by art students. The presentations are
for 3 years to students at ELTE University Sci- to make adjustments to match the most ap- about children’s drawings from several stages of
ence Faculty and MOME College of Art. The propriate format to the content of the pre- childhood.
art students don’t need to be taught the sentation. The program is ergonomical, too. On each slide of Eszter Lázs’ presentation there
basics of visual communication, but science is a concept which is connected to the title of
students need to learn all the basics. I teach It has to be so, because Adobe Indesign was the slide physically, too. The name of the con-
the basic rules of typography to all my stu- made for professionals. One would think cept is superimposed on the picture depicting
dents, except those few who are studying for that it is a complicated and more difficult that concept. Below the picture there are a few
a degree in graphic design and typography. application but there really is no basis for lines explaining the ideas contained in the slide.
this belief. In fact while it is more powerful, Three slides from the presentation of Eszter Lázs about the use of colour in children’s drawings.
These are the weak points of Eszter’s work be-
My experience is that it was impossible Adobe Indesign is more simple to handle cause the words aren’t precise and look as if
to get results or make progress if we used than PowerPoint. We can save files in pdf they were selected randomly.
PowerPoint. I saw in particular at starting of format which is flexible: it handles slides,
the course that it was more difficult to ex- movies, sounds and references, too. But it The work of Hilda Rutsch is more precise. She
plain the rules because unfortunately there doesn’t include the animation option. used only one picture on each slide. The pic-
are faulty typographical adjustments and tures are very descriptive of the topic. They
graphic templates in PowerPoint even if we As Adobe Indesign is an expensive piece of are black and white in order for the audience
disregard the basic fact that there is no de- software it is not obtainable for everybody (at to focus on the motifs, to make sure they are
sign without content. On top of that, the least in Hungary this is the actual situation) not distracted by colour and technique. Next to
ergonomy of PowerPoint is not really per- that’s why we can’t use it exclusively. But at the pictures ideas are presented clearly. More
fect, it is extremely difficult to access and/ first, while students learn the basics of a good important parts are put in italics. She even cre-
or create the appropriate setups and adjust- presentation, it’s worth working in Indesign. ated a contents slide. Each subtopic is colour
ments. I had to conclude that PowerPoint Three slides from the presentation of Hilda Rutsch about the changing representation of the house motif in children’s drawings. coded. The coloured squares actively reference
was not designed for original and individual Once the students understand what the ba- the first slide of the chapter.
work even though it is vital that the content sic rules are and are able to apply these effi- Eszter Szabó worked in PowerPoint. She junked
doesn’t get corrupted, meaning that for a ciently, they will be able to create good pre- the templates, and divided each slide into 6
successful presentation that conveys the in- sentations using other software. The essence parts. It was suitable for the topic of her pre-
formation and message accurately and in the of a good presentation is that content always sentation. If there wasn’t material for all 6 con-
way we want, we have to be able to match determines the visual elements which in tainers she would leave them blank. This form
the visuals to the content precisely. I had no turn serve accurate and clear presentation is also very clear and transparent although Esz-
choice but to liberate my students from the of the information we want to convey. ter should have organised the different types of
unjustified constraints of PowerPoint. information better. Still it is an excellent idea.
So the following year we tried Adobe Inde-
sign for making presentations. It was suc- I plan that I make a course on advanced level. We would
cessful. The students were inspired. I could try to make presentation in Adobe Flash with students.
use the program very well for explaining And practise a lot typography with exercises wich I bring
Two slides from the presentation of Eszter Szabó about the depiction of spatial from my experiences as tought in Visart where we edu-
typographic rules and adjustments. I could relations in children’s drawings. cated graphic designers. And in Adobe Flash there are
show them everything easily. Adobe Inde- plenty of possibilities for making animations as well. But
it’s needless to teach in elementary level.
Adobe Indesign