I really enjoyed watching everyone's PowerPoint presentations this last Monday. We're all getting better at presenting as well as staying cool up front.
There were a lot of memorable aspects of the presentations that worked well. Crissy's Brain Jeopardy was quite cool, even though we (including Crissy) forgot what parts of the brain did what for a bit. Candy did wonders to make up for this. Also, I liked how Whitney had the book covers for the young adult literature that she was presenting. That helped me take in the book titles and remember a couple. Finally, John did a wicked job with Rock Climbing Math. It was very interesting and stressed subject application in a fun and "I don't want to experience pain" sort of way.
The least engaging part of the presentations was when there was either 1) an overuse of text, or 2) reading from slides. This happened on several occasions. Paul's presentation was like this last time in Lichau's class, but this time it was WAY BETTER! Mostly just pictures with Paul talking. Way to go, Paul!
Looking forward, I could have done a lot to improve my presentation. First, I didn't print out any note cards to help guide myself along. I actually thought that we were presenting on Friday and didn't prepare. (Ouch! A bit surprised to walk into class and find that out.) Another piece for future thought is to make darn sure that the contrast is high in each slide. I got off lucky this time, as the lights were dimmed before my presentation came up. Last, I think it's very very very important to have a closing sequence in mind. Coming to the end of a presentation, seeing the "black screen of death" signaling the end of the slides, pausing, saying "and next....uh...huh? Oh. I guess that's it," is a horrible way to end a presentation. I did OK on the closing, but having prepared remarks would have been much better.
Overall, I like using PowerPoint. It helps me remember what I'm going to talk about and frame it in an interesting way. In closing -- here are some things to think about when considering the use of PowerPoint...
Some pros include:
1) It's fast to create a visually interesting presentation
2) It guides the presentation, only minimal notes and transitions are necessary
3) Saves paper copies
4) Can help with differentiating instruction to different learners.
Cons include:
1) Overuse can make it uninteresting
2) Proper technique from creation to delivery is critical
3) Highly dependent on technology...if one piece is out of sync it's sunk
4) The program is designed to entice users into making a bad presentation (themes, clip art, too much text)
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