Back in the Day

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Back in the Day
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Back in the day

• Few are old enough to remember when students were
  thrilled that their teacher had colored chalk.

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• Then PowerPoint arrived. Awesome!
• But we were limited to a few templates such as
  Dads Tie

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And Fireball
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• And some pretty sad clip art.

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PowerPoint Evolution

• But, as our skills with PowerPoint improved, our
  focus too often shifted from the message to
  gilding the lily.
• Content took a back seat to the new goal of
  entertaining the audience.
• We spent HOURS looking for the right sounds,
  pictures, or backgrounds to beautify our
  presentations.

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• Now we have a zillion options, and it is tempting
  to play with them all.

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And Dont Forget the Arrows
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The Problem with PowerPoint

• PowerPoint was originally designed for business
  communication, not teaching.
• Business communication is all about entertaining.
  Theres practically no teaching involved.
• Microsoft added those fancy backgrounds,
  animations, builds, transitions, etc. to
  PowerPoint not for you and me but for the
  business community.

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The Problem with PowerPoint

• Why? Because by using PowerPoints fancy
  backgrounds, animations, builds, transitions,
  etc. a businessperson can
• Impress you.
• Close the sale.
• Spin the facts.
• But somewhere along the way we became convinced
  that we needed to use PowerPoints special
  effects as well.

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The Problem with PowerPoint

• Be honest When you create a PowerPoint
  presentation, do you spend more time on the
  content or on the bells and whistles?

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So, what ARE the possibilities?

• HORRIBLE PowerPoint presentations, ones that
  actually impede or inhibit learning. For example

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Lorem Ipsum Dolor
clicktoaddtitle.com Leslie Harpold Round 2

• Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia
  dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit

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Lorem Ipsum Dolor

• Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer
  adipiscing elit.

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Lorem Ispum Dolor!

• Nam erat justo, sagittis vitae, commodo ut,
  rhoncus nonummy, ante. Duis ligula augue, aliquam
  sit amet, rutrum a, gravida quis, lacus. Mauris
  quam. Phasellus a felis

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Whats the point?

• Awful, wasnt it?
• How many times have you had to sit through
  PowerPoint presentations that look like that?
• The point we are trying to make is this The
  fancier the PowerPoint presentation, the less
  focus on the ideas being presented.

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Student perception

• What do your students feel about you using
  PowerPoint to teach?

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Student perception

• Even with the endless steam of bad PowerPoint
  presentations that are inflicted on our students,
  students still prefer PowerPoint presentations to
  presentations from transparencies or even from a
  blackboard or whiteboard.
• Why?

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Student perception

• One reason is that students believe PowerPoint
  has a positive effect on lectures, especially in
  helping them take notes and study for exams.
• More specifically, students perceive teachers who
  deliver PowerPoint lectures as being more
  organized.
• Now, lets rain on your parade.