PowerPoint is a commonly used presentation software tool that can enhance learning when used carefully but may hinder learning if overused or used improperly. The document provides advantages and challenges of using PowerPoint and tips for its effective use, such as keeping slides concise with few words and engaging the audience through interactive elements rather than just presenting slides.

1. Effective Use of PowerPoint As A
Presentation Tool

2. PowerPoint
 Microsoft PowerPoint is the name of
a proprietary commercial presentation
program developed by Microsoft. It was
officially launched on May 22, 1990 as a
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.

3.  Slide presentation software such as
PowerPoint has become an ingrained part
of many instructional settings, particularly
in large classes and in courses more
geared toward information exchange than
skill development. PowerPoint can be a
highly effective tool to aid learning, but if
not used carefully, may instead disengage
students and actually hinder learning.

4. Advantages of Using A PowerPoint
 Engaging multiple learning styles
 Increasing visual impact
 Improving audience focus
 Providing annotations and highlights
 Analyzing and synthesizing complexities
 Enriching curriculum with interdisciplinary
 Increasing spontaneity and interactivity
 Increasing wonder

5. Challenges of Using a PowerPoint
 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.

6. 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.”

7. 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.

8. Ten Thoughts About How to Use
PowerPoint Effectively
1. PowerPoint, when displayed via a projector, is a useful tool
for showing audiences things that enhance what the
speaker is saying. It is a useful tool for illustrating the
content of a speech, such as by showing photos, graphs,
charts, maps, etc., or by highlighting certain text from a
speech, such as quotations or major ideas. It should not be
used as a slide-show outline of what the speaker is telling
the audience.
2. Slides used in a presentation should be spare, in terms of
how much information is on each slide, as well as how
many slides are used. A rule of thumb is to put no more
than eight lines of text on a slide, and with no more than
eight to ten words per line. In most cases, less is more, so
four lines of text is probably better. Don’t display charts or
graphs with a lot of information—if it’s useful for the
audience to see such things, pass them out as handouts.

9. 3. Unless you’re an experienced designer, don’t use the transition
and animation “tricks” that are built into PowerPoint, such as
bouncing or flying text. By now, most people roll their eyes when
they see these things, and these tricks add nothing of value to a
presentation.
4. Above all, use high-contrast color schemes so that whatever is
on your slides is readable. Unless you are a talented graphic
designer, use the templates that come with PowerPoint or
Keynote, and keep it simple—high concept design in a slide
presentation doesn’t help in most circumstances, unless you’re in
the fashion or design fields. If you use graphics or photos, try to
use the highest quality you can find or afford—clip art and low-
resolution graphics blown up on a screen usually detract from a
presentation.
5. Rehearse your PowerPoint presentation and not just once.
Don’t let PowerPoint get in the way of your oral presentation, and
make sure you know how it works, what sequence the slides are
in, how to get through it using someone else’s computer, etc.
Make sure that you can deliver your presentation if PowerPoint is
completely unavailable; in other words, make sure you can give
your speech without your PowerPoint presentation.

10. 6. Get used to using black slides. There are few speeches that
need something displayed on the screen all the time. If you
include a black slide in your presentation, your audience will
refocus on you, rather than on the screen, and you can direct
them back to the screen when you have something else to
show them. Put a black screen at the end of your presentation,
so that when you’re done, the PowerPoint presentation is
finished and off the screen.
7. Concentrate on keeping the audience focused on you, not
on the screen. You can do this by using slides sparingly,
standing in front of the audience in a way that makes them
look at you, and, if possible, going to the screen and using
your hand or arm to point out things on a slide. If you expect to
be using PowerPoint a lot, invest in a remote “clicker” that lets
you get away from the computer and still drive your
presentation. If you don’t have one of those, it’s better to ask
someone to run the presentation than to be behind a screen
and keyboard while you talk.

11. 8. If you show something on a computer that requires moving
the cursor around, or flipping from one screen to another, or
some other technique that requires interaction with the computer
itself, remember that people in the audience will see things very
differently on the projection screen than you see them on the
computer screen. Keep motion on the screen to a minimum,
unless you’re showing a movie or a video. It’s better to show a
static screenshot of a Web page, embedded on a slide, than to
call up the Web page in a browser on a computer. If you want to
point out something on a Web page, go to the screen and point
at it—don’t jiggle the cursor around what you want people to look
at: their heads will look like bobble-headed dolls.
9. Don’t “cue” the audience that listening to your speech means
getting through your PowerPoint presentation. If the audience
sees that your PowerPoint presentation is the structure of your
speech, they’ll start wondering how many slides are left. Slides
should be used asynchronously within your speech, and only to
highlight or illustrate things. Audiences are bored with oral
presentations that go from one slide to the next until the end.
Engage the audience, and use slides only when they are useful.

12. 10. Learn how to give a good speech without PowerPoint. This
takes practice, which means giving speeches without
PowerPoint. Believe it or not, public speaking existed before
PowerPoint, and many people remember it as being a lot
better then than it is now. A few people use presentation
software in extremely effective ways—Steve Jobs and
Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig are two examples. Al
Gore’s use of Keynote in the movie “An Inconvenient Truth”
was a good model. But these three examples don’t look at all
like the way most people use PowerPoint. Avoiding bad
PowerPoint habits means, first and foremost, becoming a
good public speaker.

13. Presentation Technique
• Leave the lights on
• Blank the screen when not using the
presentation
• Face the students and don't block
the screen
• Print out large blocks of text, rather
than presenting them on the screen

14. Visual Design
• Use white space - don't
crowd
• Use contrast - dark on light /
light on dark
• Use large print
• Use images

15. 5 Rules for More Effective
Presentations
• Don’t give your presentation software center
stage. This is the biggest mistake speakers make. They
forget that PowerPoint or Keynote are tools designed
to augment their presentation not be their presentation.
• Create a logical flow to your presentation. Better
yet, tell a story. The absolute last thing you want to do is
turn your presentation into a random assortment of bulleted
lists, which is what often happens, especially when
PowerPoint is involved. There must be a flow.
• Make your presentation readable. Memorize this
sentence: “If people can’t read my slides from the back of
the room, my type is too small.” Now repeat it over and
over again while you create your slides. If people are
squinting during your presentation, trying to make out
what’s on the slide, you’ve lost your audience.

16. • Remember, less is more. Fancy slide transitions and
fly-ins get old quickly. I strongly recommend that you keep
things simple. A basic dissolve from one slide to another is
usually sufficient. Also, have all your bullets appear at once
rather than one at a time. Avoid sound effects—they serve
no other purpose than annoying the audience and
distracting them from your presentation. Finally, cut down
the number of slides.
• Distribute a handout. Do not think that you should
distribute a handout before you begin speaking. If you do
so, people will start reading ahead instead of listening to
you. It’s just one more distraction to keep them from
focusing on your message. It also eliminates any surprises
or drama you have built into your presentation. Instead,
distribute a handout of the slides when I am finished with
my presentation. That way, they can take notes during my
session, knowing that they don’t have to write everything
down. This allows them to stay engaged without becoming
distracted.

17. Three Possible Approaches
 Text-heavy: this version offers complete
phrases and a comprehensive recording in words
of the material. The text-heavy version can be
used as the lecturer's speaking notes, and
doubles as student notes that can be made
available for download either before or after the
lecture has taken place. If the information can be
accessed elsewhere, such as a textbook, it may
be preferable to avoid a text-heavy approach,
which many students find disengaging during the
delivery.

18.  Some images: this version sacrifices some of the completeness of
the material to create space for accompanying images. The mixed
approach appeals to more visual learners while keeping some
lecture notes visible, though perhaps in a more abbreviated format.
This is a common mode of delivery in large classes. However,
there are still some challenges. There is enough material already
present in text format that some students may feel obliged to write
it all down in their own notes, thus paying less attention to the
verbal lecture. Conversely, if the slides are available for download,
some students may be able to eschew note-taking in class, yet be
tempted to consider these fragmentary notes sufficient for studying
for exams.
 Image-heavy: this version relies almost exclusively on images, with
little text. The image-heavy approach signals to students that they
will have to take their own notes, as these are plainly insufficient
on their own for studying. However, lecturers often need more than
visual clues to remind themselves how to propel the lecture
forward, and separate notes may be required. One elegant solution
is to use "Presenter View" on the speaker's screen (which displays
the notes only to you) and project the slides without notes onto the
larger screen visible to the audience.

19. PowerPoint Interactions:
Student Response "Clickers"
• Classroom response systems can improve
students' learning by engaging them actively in
the learning process. Instructors can employ the
systems to gather individual responses from
students or to gather anonymous feedback. It is
possible to use the technology to give quizzes
and tests, to take attendance, and to quantify
class participation. Some of the systems provide
game formats that encourage debate and team
competition. Reports are typically exported to
Excel for upload to the instructor's grade book.

20. Best Practices: Delivery
Avoid reading: if your slides contain
lengthy text, lecture "around" the material
rather than reading it directly.
Dark screen: an effective trick to focus
attention on you and your words is to
temporarily darken the screen, which can
be accomplished by clicking the "B"
button on the keyboard. Hitting "B" again
will toggle the screen back to your
presentation.

21. Navigate slides smoothly: the left-mouse
click advances to the next slide, but it's
more cumbersome to right-click to move
back one slide. The keyboard's arrow keys
work more smoothly to go forward and
backward in the presentation. Also, if you
know the number of a particular slide, you
can simply type that number, followed by
the ENTER key, to jump directly to that
slide.

22. Respectfully Submitted to Prof.
Erwin M. Globio, MSIT