Reflection #5: PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint is a presentation tool that most people view as boring, mundane, and pointless. My students and my colleagues had negative experiences with PowerPoint. Slides that are text-heavy and too flash takes away from the overall presentation and instruction. I have had my share of viewing pointless and boring PowerPoint but there are rare occasions when I see a great PowerPoint presentation. A great presentation can be a work of art with a flow and fluidity of slides meshing together in one piece. Our class discussed the importance of design in a PowerPoint presentation.
PowerPoint can be intimidating since there are so many ways to animate and transform a slide. Simplicity and knowledge of the basics can help the process. For example, making colors and images clear and bold can create an engaging slide. The focus should be to make a good presentation, which means there should be a balance between visuals and speech. Allan Pavio called the connection between visuals and speech the Dual-coding theory because "language and mental imagery [are] two dominant forms of knowledge used by the mind" (Martinez, pg 44). Animations should serve a purpose. A sequential animation can be used to organize topics and motion path effects can simulate ideas such as distance and quantity. The key point that my professor recommended is to contextualize your visuals. Pointless effects, images, and texts can disengage an audience.
There are alternatives to PowerPoint that make presentations easy and engaging. Keynote is my favorite when choosing a slide format presentation. Apple's version of PowerPoint is user-friendly and designing a slide simple instead of flashy. Our class was given a demonstration of Prezi, which is more of a canvas style format. Prezi focuses more on a visual path, which makes the presentation pop out and is visually stunning.
Presentations do not have to be the typical boring tool most people hate. PowerPoint, Keynote, and Prezi can create a digital experience that can captivate audience members if used the right way.
PowerPoint can be intimidating since there are so many ways to animate and transform a slide. Simplicity and knowledge of the basics can help the process. For example, making colors and images clear and bold can create an engaging slide. The focus should be to make a good presentation, which means there should be a balance between visuals and speech. Allan Pavio called the connection between visuals and speech the Dual-coding theory because "language and mental imagery [are] two dominant forms of knowledge used by the mind" (Martinez, pg 44). Animations should serve a purpose. A sequential animation can be used to organize topics and motion path effects can simulate ideas such as distance and quantity. The key point that my professor recommended is to contextualize your visuals. Pointless effects, images, and texts can disengage an audience.
There are alternatives to PowerPoint that make presentations easy and engaging. Keynote is my favorite when choosing a slide format presentation. Apple's version of PowerPoint is user-friendly and designing a slide simple instead of flashy. Our class was given a demonstration of Prezi, which is more of a canvas style format. Prezi focuses more on a visual path, which makes the presentation pop out and is visually stunning.
Presentations do not have to be the typical boring tool most people hate. PowerPoint, Keynote, and Prezi can create a digital experience that can captivate audience members if used the right way.
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