POWERpoint or PowerPOINTLESS?

In college you learned about how to properly put a group of adults to sleep with a PowerPoint presentation of wordy real estate and a lack of action. Then, you show up to your classroom and hear all this talk about using “technology in the classroom”, but see there is not much funding for the really cool stuff you read about in all those Education magazines. So, you scrape together an LCD projector by bribing your librarian with free coffee until Christmas Break. Then, you spend a Thursday night with a couple glasses of wine, a king size pack of Kit-Kats, and a Youtube playlist of music to make you feel like your I.Q. is glowing from all its academic power. You strut into your classroom for a cool Friday lesson with the comforting hum of the projector pumping out pictures like your students pump out text messages while in the bathroom during class.

You crank up the Powerpoint, the kids are poised for greatness, and you start your presentation that would have gotten a perfect score in your college computer class. Everyone else is not so happy… Your expectation of having an “Avatar” kind of day quickly turns into the outtakes from “Steam Boat Willie”. The class is not impressed, not engaged, and not caring about the effort you put in last night. Frustration sets in and you vow to call “technology” a dumb idea.

Three words: PUMP THE BRAKES!

It is not your fault. You were taught how to make a “successful” PowerPoint by people twice removed from an actual classroom where they are using guidelines created, no doubt, from the tutorial for the program itself. Not everyone does this, but it is the general thinking I have seen in my college career and the ways of thinking with most of my student teachers over the years. There is nobody at fault for this. At least there is some kind of training going on. Just remember your audience. Audience changes rules, throws out the list of “don’ts”, and leaves room for imagination. Audience = Adaptation.

Things I do with my PowerPoints:

• Solid backgrounds and no weird font colors. Remember, there are people with different eyesight, seating, color blindness, and the presence of mind to realize eye strain sucks for anyone. White is always my background and black and dark blue are usually my font colors. Remember, an LCD projector also dulls colors…
• Less is more. I hate that saying, but it fits here. Do not put a huge amount of words on each slide. Chunk it to go over a few slides. This makes it easier to digest and less intimidating for the student.
• Make everything move and make sound. Watching moving objects goes all the way back to the Caveman. Which means it really is, “so easy a Caveman can do it.”
•  Use more than the stock sounds. Go search free sound effects, movie quotes, etc. You can find several free sites where you can download these things and use them. Do it. There is only so much cash register, clapping, and whoosing sounds someone can take before they feel like they are at Guantanamo Bay. We know when we hear certain sounds on T.V. it connects with certain products or events. Come on…all I need to saw is “Jaws”….you are 'duh dumming' in your head right now. Do that! Not 'Duh dumming', but assign sounds to specific actions. I have a sound that leads to extra credit. I tell the kids and let them listen for it. Sometimes they get it, sometimes they don’t. I also have one for “test question alert”. I tell them that too….only once or twice. Let them get into it and find the clues.
• Pictures are a good thing. Bing, Google, Yahoo, and whatever else you use has an images search feature. Use it. Hot tip: If you right click on the photo you can copy and paste in into your slide without increasing the size of the file by saving it and inserting it…and make sure you are following copyright rules if you are putting this thing out there to the public. Talk to your Librarian. They are a WONDERFUL resource. Probably the smartest people in the building…
• Earlier we talked in the “8 and 2” post about creating your own in-class commercial breaks. There is nothing wrong with a slide having a question or photo to generate this. Your call.
• Make it fun. Vary up your motions you assign to the content. Making it all appear via motion/click means no one gets ahead of you and loses focus or disrupts others.

Our students are bombarded with sounds, pictures, and easy to read phrases all over the place. I use the exact same idea when introducing content. The real work begins after we all know what we are talking about, but when we ARE talking about it I want to make sure it is as comfortable and “easy” as possible.

Just remember that, “Audience = Adaptation”. Make it fit your students. Ask for feedback and actually listen to it. They will tell you what they want to make it less painful. If they are having fun while learning then the trust they have for you multiplies. If they trust you, then they will perform for you.