PowerPoint in the Classroom !

PowerPoint’s in general are used to visualize ideas, create key points and to impress. When using it in a classroom, as an educator it is your responsibility to use it efficiently.  A little effort can do wonders to a presentation!

PowerPoint’s help in communicating thoughts of a presenter to the group. So, whatever you would like to present i.e. the content is most important part of it. Items on the screen which have nothing to do with content should not be there. Lots of words mess up the whole concept of PowerPoint. Just keep in mind, what is the point?  One simple point? Remove everything else from the slide. Keep only relevant points on slide. In addition to that, under no circumstances, should you read your slide word for word from the presentation screen. No reading. People read faster than you speak. This will result in disconnect between you and your students; plus doing so will make your presence futile.

Then comes font! Font is the imperative part of the content. Fonts can be categorized into 3 types: Serif (difficult to read on screen), Sans Serif (Are clearer and give professional look and feel; they are the best ones) and Decorative fonts (should never be used in presentations). It is important to note down here that Comic sans although is a popular font, but is a type of decorative font. Next, the style of font used, alignment and proximity affect the clarity and explicitness of the words. Underlines possibly will signify hyperlinks. Italics are difficult to read on screen and should be avoided. Normal and bold fonts are clearer. Not more than 2 fonts should be used in the presentation. Proper Capitalization is important. All capital letters are difficult to read. Make use of Upper and lower case letters.

Researchers have discovered that ideas are much more likely to be remembered if they are presented as pictures instead of words or pictures paired with words. But never ever use them just for the sake of it. There are possibilities that artworks / pictures/ clip-arts may distract students. Make pictures part of your content. Never put them in a corner.        

Background can kill the concept you want to talk about. Instead of an illustrative background, go for solid colours. You can also try making your own backgrounds with the combination of solid colours, graphics or images!

Take care to match text colours and background. If you can’t use them wisely, avoid them entirely. Make use of colour wheel for selecting colours of your presentation. There are lots of combinations that work very well; like Monochromatic scheme, Analogous scheme, Complementary scheme etc.

A light text colour against a dark background also appears very well. Avoid colour combinations that hurt eyes, like green text on red background. You can use a lot of Contrast… Like white text on black background!

Avoid using too many transitions in your presentation. It does not enhance your work! Just one transition effect for all slides works out well. Appear, Disappear, Push Right /Left, Fade away are some of my personal favorites.

I personally feel that an animation (here I am referring to the animated graphics and not animated effects on text!) breaks the monotony but then only relevant ones should be used. For example difficult concepts can be explained easily by animated graphics used   Unnecessary and unrelated animations causes distractions!

Animated effects on the text causes a lot of distraction .For e.g. effects like typewriter appears slowly on the screen and by the time the point is done,  students attention divert. However, if you are firm on using these effects, use them wisely. Opt for effects which are less time consuming and cause less distraction.

And the final words -  repeat slides in your presentation to reinforce the message!