1. PowerPoint can be an effective tool for instruction if used carefully, but may disengage students if overused or not designed well. It works best when integrating other active learning techniques. 2. Effective PowerPoint use involves engaging multiple learning styles with images and annotations, while avoiding excessive text-heavy slides or reliance only on presentation of information without feedback or student interaction. 3. Instructors should focus on active learning over passive reception of slides, using techniques like questions on slides, small group activities, and ensuring notes supplement rather than replace student notetaking to avoid disengagement.

2.  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.

3. 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 interdisciplinary
 Increasing spontaneity and interactivity
 Increasing wonder

4.  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.

5.  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.

6.  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.

7.  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.

8.  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

9.  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

10.  Instructors who do not have sufficient
photocopying opportunities in their
departments may be less likely to use paper
worksheets with their students, especially in
large classes. PowerPoint offers the ability to
approximate worksheets to illustrate processes
or to provide "worked examples" that shows
problem-solving step-by-step. One valuable
technique is to first demonstrate a process or
problem on one slide, then ask students to work
on a similar problem revealed on the next
slide, using their own paper rather than
worksheets handed out.

11.  Text size: text must be clearly readable from the back
of the room. Too much text or too small a font will be
difficult to read.
 Avoid too much text: one common suggestion is to
adhere to the 6x6 rule (no more than six words per
line, and no more than six lines per slide). The
"Takahasi Method" goes so far as to recommend
enormous text and nothing else on the slide, not even
pictures, perhaps as little as just one word on each
slide.
 Contrast: light text on dark backgrounds will strain the
eyes. Minimize this contrast, and opt instead for dark
text on light backgrounds. Combinations to avoid, in
case of partial color blindness in the
audience, include red-green, or blue-yellow.

12.  Transitions and animations should be
used sparingly and consistently to avoid
distractions.
 Template: do not change the template
often. The basic format should be
consistent and minimal.
 Use graphics and pictures to illustrate
and enhance the message, not just for
prettiness.

13.  Change font
 Shapes
 Clip art
 Images
 Charts
 Tables
 Transitions
 Animations
 Animating text or chart

14.  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.

15.  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.
 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.

16.  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.

17.  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.
 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.

18.  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.

19.  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.

20.  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.
 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.

21. -Kimura, Dominick N.
IA12102