Creating educationally Effective Presentations: More than just powerpoint By Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky, Tzvi.Pittinsky@frisch.org

Advantages…

Recent research suggests limits to its effectiveness… Professor John Sweller of University of New South Wales: “It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.”

What the research says… Cognitive Overload Theory Since working memory has separate visual and auditory channels, the brain can become overloaded when the same text is spoken and read off a slide. (Sweller, 2002) Bad presentations have too many words or too few words on slide, too many slides for the presentation length, distracting background, animations or visuals, lack of order to the presentation, or overly complicated charts. (Cooper, 2009) Student Boredom In a study of college students in Northwest England, 59% of students reported that they were bored in at least half of their classes. The same study found the professor’s use of PowerPoint to be a contributing factor to student boredom. This is because teachers often use PowerPoint to merely post their lecture notes and then read directly from the slides. (Mann, and Robinson, 2009)

Is this easier to understand?

PowerPoint Don’ts- By Comedian Don McMillan

PowerPoint Don’ts To summarize: Don’t just read everything that you will say in class directly from the slides or make so many words that the slide is hard to read because the font is so small. Avoid Excessive Bullet Points Don’t use bad color combinations. Don’t overuse animations.

PowerPoint Dos Use text and graphics to make your point

PowerPoint Dos (continued)

Other Presentation Tools

Educational Prezis Is Monarchy Good for the Jews? http://prezi.com/g4j5fazcqhap/ The Rationale for Using Educational Technology http://prezi.com/jzarmzu9gmle/ Student Prezi on Dr. Seuss http://prezi.com/wrmseuxsievl/dr-seuss-2/ The Arab Israeli Conflict http://prezi.com/blg1tzlm98zb/the-arab-israeli-conflict/

Online Resources http://learning.nd.edu/powerpoint/ http://www.educause.edu/e04/educause2004speakerresources/2501 http://www.asha.org/about/events/convention/papers/ppt-info http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/ http://www.presentationzen.com/

Image Credits http://campussec.com/images/smartboardteachers.jpg http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/archives/2004/Nov/ http://www.powerpointninja.com/for-fun/dilbert-on-powerpoint-presentations/ http://www.squidoo.com/kissortmi http://www.microsoft.com/uk/atwork/office/powerpoint2007.mspx

Works Cited Cooper, E. (2009). Overloading on slides: Cognitive load theory and Microsoft’s slide program PowerPoint. AACE Journal, 17(2), 127-135. Mann, S. and Robinson, A. (2009) Boredom in the lecture theatre: an investigation into the contributors, moderators, and outcomes of boredom amongst university students, British Educational Research Journal, 35:2, 243-258. Research points the finger at PowerPoint - technology - smh.com.au Retrieved 3/3/2010, 2010, from http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/powerpoint-presentations-a-disaster/2007/04/03/1175366240499.html Sweller, J. Visualisation and Instructional Design, In Proceedings of the International Workshop on Dynamic Visualizations and Learning (Tübingen, Germany, July 18--19, 2002). Knowledge Media Research Center, Tübingen, 2002, 1501--1510. Young, J. R. (2009, July 20). When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved January 23, 2010, from http://chronicle.com/article/Teach-Naked-Effort-Strips/47398/