Wednesday, September 3, 2014

PowerPoint Doesn’t Suck; 10 Ideas To Make it Great | Connected Principals

PowerPoint Doesn’t Suck; 10 Ideas To Make it Great | Connected Principals:



PowerPoint Doesn’t Suck; 10 Ideas To Make it Great

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I have often heard of people saying, “we shouldn’t just keep teaching our kids PowerPoint anymore”‘ as if it is some terrible technology.  Presentation software (PowerPoint, HaikuDeck, Keynote, Prezi, etc.) is actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it, but as with many things surrounding the technology, we need to go way past how to create something, and focus on how we use it.
For example, if you create a PowerPoint with tons of text that is hard to read, and you simply copy and paste mass amounts of information into slide after slide, with no compelling visuals, the use of the technology is weal, not the technology itself.  It has done its job.  Now if we teach our students to use limited amount of characters, with great accompanying images, videos, and then work with them to have the ability to tell a story from those visuals, you would probably have much deeper learning from not only the student that created it, but also the students that have been able to hear the presentation as well.
If I wanted to read an essay, I wouldn’t necessarily want to read it from a PowerPoint.
Here are some of the quick tips that I would suggest in teaching these presentation skills:
  1. I like to use a simple font throughout that is easy to read and consistent throughout.  That is a personal preference.
  2. Try to stay away from text on a page longer than a tweet. There will be times where you will have to go beyond, but quick quotes can add a lot to a presentation.
  3. I try to make “one point” per slide.  This is following the “less is more” idea where it is better to go deeper than to share a ton of ideas that no one will remember.  We want ideas to resonate.
  4. Visuals with text are helpful if they help tell the story. I use Creative Commons to find images, rather than going to Google Images since it is important that we teach our students to use “copyleft” materials and provide attributionPowerPoint Doesn’t Suck; 10 Ideas To Make it Great | Connected Principals:
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