STOP Killing Your Students with PowerPoint

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

Warning

PowerPoint

Its 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 Common PowerPoint Mistakes

Cardinal Sin 2

Dodging Bullets

Example

This is a Very Important Slide In case you had 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 its 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 Common PowerPoint Mistakes 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 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 Common PowerPoint Mistakes

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

words

Taken from an example of a real GCSE Business lesson

GCSE Unit 4f – Economic and Technological forces 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

Doesn’t it make you feel like this?

Let’s break it down

Technological Forces

Manufacturing products only when ordered (JIT)

IncreasesIncreases

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

GCSE Unit 4f – Economic and Technological forces 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

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

Never use clipart!

LimitLimit

Your Words Per Slide

Less text and data is

G d

Make only ONE point per slide

Dodge the bullets

Don’t use bad colour schemes

Check your spelling

Use pictures

Try

Now its your turn

2

Killing your students

1.Don McMillan (life after death by Powerpoint) 2.Death by PowerPoint (and how to fight it) by Alexei Kapterev 3.Dodging bullets in presentations by Rowan Manahan (fortifyservices. Blogspot.com) 4.Flikr-Storm Music from track – “Warped” 8.Music from track – “She will stop” 9.Music from track – “Misfit” With Thanks To

Jacqueline Hicks © 2008 Lead Teacher of ICT