Classroom Tools Series:
Computer Resources 3 - Tips on creating an effective PowerPoint presentation
In today’s world where students are, to some extent, all technologically proficient, one effective way to stir up their interest is to integrate technology into your teaching technique. From showing videos, creating class websites, posting grades online, to podcasting, there are numerous ways teachers are integrating technology into the classrooms.
One of today’s most popular and powerful technology-based classroom tools among teachers and students alike is the PowerPoint presentation. Elementary and high-school teachers and college professors all around the world use the tool to enhance their lessons. Here are some tips you can follow so you too can effectively maximize the potential of the PowerPoint as a teaching tool:
- Before you go on creating the slide show, determine first what your lesson will be about. Then, create an outline of your presentation. This will ensure that you have a smooth-flowing and well-structured presentation. 1
- Keep the words you put on the slides short. The presentation should merely serve as your guide when delivering your lecture, so they must only contain certain keywords or phrases, not entire paragraphs of your lecture. 2
- Maximize PowerPoint’s features and insert sounds, animations, backgrounds, etc. to your presentation. Students, especially Filipino students, tend to be very visual. A “stylized” PowerPoint presentation will therefore be more interesting and memorable to them. Educators adept at using the tool point out that the program’s features are especially useful in teaching science. Imagine how interesting your lesson on the Big Bang Theory could be if it was accompanied by sounds and animations. 3
- Do not go overboard with the presentation. Too much animation and sounds could distract your students from what the lesson is actually about so it is essential to find the right balance of style and substance.4
- Make sure that your presentation has the following:5
- Central topic
- One theme or background
- Consistent slide animation
- One font set
- One text animation effect
- Only use Microsoft fonts. This will ensure that there won’t be any glitches when you try to play your presentation using a different computer.6
- Make use of PowerPoint’s text animation and timing features and do not show every point on the slide all at once. This will ensure that your students will keep their attention focused on what you are saying and not what is on the slide.7
Allowing pictures, sounds, and animation effects to be incorporated into a slideshow, the PowerPoint has the ability to enhance your lessons and make an otherwise boring lecture into an interesting and interactive learning experience. Use it.
Did You Know?
Related Smart Schools article:
Classroom Tools Series Basic PowerPoint Tips
Sources:
1 Jackson, Lorrie. Creating a PowerPoint Techtorial.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial047.pdf
2-7 Jackson, Lorrie. Education World, “What’s the point of PowerPoint?”
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech/tech204.shtml
8 Wikipedia, Microsoft PowerPoint. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerPoint
