Last night was the first night that I used a PowerPoint in a presentation that only included information. I have only used PowerPoint once before, with no animations to show my class a set of pictures, which lasted for about five minutes. So, last night was a good learning experience. I definitely think that in the classroom there are a few things that you need so that your PowerPoint presentation will for surely grab and hold the attention of your students.
For one, we had animations, but no sounds. I know that we were talking but I think a sound that was not one of our voices would have helped. These sounds catch the attention of the students that takes their focus to the projection screen, even if it is only for a few moments.
Secondly, I would have liked to have a remote for moving the PowerPoint on ahead. I do not think that when you are presenting you should have a set time that your PowerPoint moves, for example, to have a new piece of information pop up every 30 seconds. I once had a Remembrance Day presentation that was like that and before you knew it the guy was three slides behind, trying to explain the second last picture that we already saw, and it was altogether very confusing. I think that using a remote would solve the problems of being able to control the PowerPoint as well as move around in the classroom. Movement amongst the student is key during longer presentations because you are using proximity. If the students are not watching the projection screen at least they may be focused on you, and you are the one providing them with the information.
Thirdly, I would break up the presentation a little bit more than we did. We could have had some discussion points or played a quick game. I guess this depends on how long your presentation is. Ours was only twenty minutes but some of our classmates could not sit for that long. This may have been because we were the second presenters of the night, and the first group used a PowerPoint as well. Either way, to have the students answer a few questions here or there was not enough to keep them from getting bored. Half way through we could have done a brain break and that would have been enough movement to make it through the next half with a bit more energy.
Lastly, I would provide them with the slides so they could take notes. We thought we were doing them a favour by providing them with the notes after the presentation, the slides as well as the information that was not on the slides. It may have been better to provide them with the slides and have them take their own notes to keep them attentive. This may work in a high school or middle years classroom better because you have the authority over them to tell them to take the notes. In a university classroom, it does not work as well because these people are our peers and do not necessarily have to take the notes down if they do not think it will help them.
I think that we did have our slides set up so that they were very concise and not crowded. We picked the most important information to have on our slides and left the rest in the notes box below. We did have good colours so that it was easy to see, you did not have to strain your eyes to read it and it was not so bright that your eyes got sore from looking at it. We only stayed on one slide for about two or three minutes so there was constantly a new visual to look at. The PowerPoint also gave us something to refer to, as well as the notes we made. It was a good experience and I think I am better prepared to make a PowerPoint for my major project that will be useful for me in the future now that I know what things make it work well while presenting.
Does anyone else have experiences to share or comments to make about this?
~Linsey~
