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This weekend, I went to a conference where the keynote speakers presented using a PowerPoint. During this presentation, I truly realized the application of the Beyond Bullet Points reading. Nearly everything that the presenters said was also scripted on the PowerPoint, which was very visually overwhelming for me as an audience member. Also, sometimes there was so much information on the screen that the text needed to be very small. I was in the second row of the auditorium and I often had a hard time reading the screen. In addition, the background of the PowerPoint was black, and the presenters highlighted text by changing it from white to violet or dark blue. This meant that there wasn't a lot of contrast between the highlighted text and the background color, making it very difficult to read.
However, one thing that that I did really like that these presenters included was video clips from popular movies which were relevant to the presenter's topic. These caught my attention and refocused it on the topic at hand. Now I have a much better understanding of why it is important to structure PowerPoints in a way that is condusive the the learner and not just convenient to the presenter!
This goes back to our assignment a few weeks ago, you shouldn't put too much informaiton onto a slide because it is hard for the readers to listen and understand what is being said on the powerpoint itself.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you were able to relate to the topics though, it always makes thing work out much better!
It was interesting how much I noticed that the PowerPoint was not assisting my learning after reading from experts in the field, about what a PowerPoint should be like in order to be the most beneficial to students.
ReplyDeleteI know that this was a topic from a few weeks ago, but I thought that it was neat to see a real life application of what we were learning about in class. It gave me a point of reference as to why our class material is so important!
LOL After reading your post, I totally laughed out loud. In every class, every time someone gives a powerpoint presentation, I can't help but compare their methods to the bullet point method discussed in our course! and sadly, NO ONE is going about creating their powerpoints in a way that can promote deep learning, critical thinking, etc. The last powerpoint presentation I saw, had so much information on it, NO bullet points or pictures and was soo long that after slide two, I completely zoned out. It's really making me realize how important a good powerpoint presentation really is.
ReplyDeleteRachel
Rachel, I'm glad that you notice this too. I can't even tell you the last PowerPoint that I saw that promoted real learning and critical thinking. Why take the time of creating visual aides if they aren't going to be beneficial to your students?
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