Avoiding Powerpoint
Karaoke
Dr Stephen Marshall
University Teaching Development Centre
stephen.marshall@vuw.ac.nz
Copyright ©2005 Stephen Marshall
distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html)
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Summary
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 Have a clear purpose for how the Powerpoint slides
(or any other media) are helping students
 Use multiple versions of materials in different
contexts
 Face to face time should be treated as precious
 Don't be passive in your use of the materials
 Simplify the media to focus on the elements that
assist in understanding and use
 Complexity must be respected
 Be aware of copyright imposed limitations
http://www.utdc.vuw.ac.nz/documentation/powerpoint/
What about the research?
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Students have difficulty following lectures where
they are not given a clear outline
(Johnstone and Su 1994)
Students best recall the information provided
during the first five minutes of a presentation
(Burns 1985; Buzan 1989)
Agenda
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Purpose of Powerpoint
Planning for learning
Creation of Powerpoint presentations
Delivery with Powerpoint
PowerPointlessness
Powerpoint Poisoning
Karaoke Powerpoint
TTT
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Powerpoint
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Positive
Negative
Agenda
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Purpose of Powerpoint
Planning for learning
Creation of Powerpoint presentations
Delivery with Powerpoint
Attention
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Interaction
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 Active learning techniques
• Engagement
• Relevance
 Challenge yourself
• How to get the students
to learn rather than be
taught
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Handouts
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QuickTime™ and a
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Provide skeletons
Consider the medium
Plan for revision
Respect the complexity of the material
What about the research?
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Changes every ten to fifteen minutes are needed to maintain
attention
(Johnstone and Percival 1976; Burns 1985)
Short rests or breaks improve learning
(Buzan 1989)
Anchoring in previous experience or concrete experiences
improves learning
(Blanc, et al. 1983; Karplus et al. 1976; Renner et al. 1976)
The more students write down themselves the more they recall but
there is a high rate of errors in student notes
(Johnstone and Su 1994; Bligh 2000; Baker et al 1986; Locke
1977)
Agenda
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Purpose of Powerpoint
Planning for learning
Creation of Powerpoint presentations
Delivery with Powerpoint
Design
What makes a slide effective?
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Bulleting
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Don’t
Overuse
Bullets!
An example…
Consider the role of the bullet:
 Wash your hands after the experiment
•The chemicals are poisonous
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QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/discourse
Design
Text
• Size
Too small - 18 point
Small - 24 point
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Good - 32 point
Great - 40 point
• Font
Decorative
Serif - Times
Sans-serif - Arial
-
Text
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Underline
Italic
Bold
Colour
Font
UPPERCASE - LESS READABLE
vs
Mixed Case - More Readable
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Home
Sweet
Home
Design
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Colour
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Avoid colours with a
similar density,
particularly
RED and GREEN
Even high
contrast colours
like red and blue
can be hard to
read when used
together
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In general, dark
on light is your
best bet
Design
Images and Diagrams
Auckland
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Hamilton
Palmerston North
Wellington
Christchurch
Dunedin
NGI Internet
Backbone
Size really is important
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Design
Complexity
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Design
CANDIDATE FOR A PULLET SURPRISE
by Jerrold H. Zar
I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.
A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.
Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.
Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault's with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.
Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word's fare as hear.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.
Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.
Design
http://www.tenderbytes.net/rhymeworld/feeder/teacher/pullet.htm
Spelling
Bee fore a veiling checker's
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we're lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.
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What about the research?
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More than 40 items in a presentation resulted in
reduced impact
(Burns 1985)
Human recall is most efficient when provided with
information chunked into less than 7±2 items
(Miller 1956)
Complexity is important
(Tufte 2001; 2003)
Agenda
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Purpose of Powerpoint
Planning for learning
Creation of Powerpoint presentations
Delivery with Powerpoint
The Medium is the Massage
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Powerpoint tools
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Presentation setup
Slide numbering
Pen tool
Navigation tools
Navigation
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 Go to… item
 Navigation palette
 Hyperlinks
Timing
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lets
Timing
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talk
Timing
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about
Timing
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how
Timing
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many
Timing
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slides
Timing
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are
Timing
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a
Timing
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good
Timing
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idea
Timing
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lets talk about how many
slides are a good idea
Movement
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QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Audibility
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QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
Alternatives to Powerpoint
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 Blackboard
 Web pages
• Wikis
 Specialist software
 Keynote
 Quicktime movies
 PDF files
 Flash
…
Distribution
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Get info
Convert to PDF
Don’t export as HTML
Remove copyright material and
extraneous slides
What about the research?
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Most information written out by the teacher is retained
compared with only 10% of material supplied orally
(Johnstone and Percival 1976; Locke 1977)
Delivery speed and clarity is important!
(Johnstone and Percival 1976)
Review and summaries soon after the material is
covered improves learning
(Buzan 1989)
Summary
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 Have a clear purpose for how the Powerpoint slides
(or any other media) are helping students
 Use multiple versions of materials in different
contexts
 Face to face time should be treated as precious
 Don't be passive in your use of the materials
 Simplify the media to focus on the elements that
assist in understanding and use
 Complexity must be respected
 Be aware of copyright imposed limitations
Questions and Followup
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?
http://www.utdc.vuw.ac.nz/documentation/powerpoint/