Presentation21 Make-Over
Those of us who are involved in Professional Development have known for a while now. We don’t have the same crowd sitting in the audience anymore. The crowd is not “WoWed” by fancy PowerPoints with clipart from the Microsoft Gallery. A sigh goes through the ranks when animation (maybe even with sound) pop one bullet point after another onto the screen.
“Death by PowerPoint” sets in”. This is a phrase defined on Wikipedia as:
is a criticism of slide-based presentations referring to a state of boredom and fatigue induced by information overload during presentations such as those created by the Microsoft application PowerPoint.
Why is there a need for Presentation Design in the 21st Century?
Garr Reynolds in Presentation Zen says:
We live in times where design and visual communication skills are increasingly important and valued. [...] We should not focus on the tools and software, but the principles and elements of visual communication that lead to better design.
Daniel Pink in The Whole New Mind designates “Design” as one of the six senses that will help develop this whole new mind.
We need to understand that the product is not about function alone, but how it can be emotionally engaging.
It is a fact that we remember visual information better than written one! So, take some time and re-examine your presentation PowerPoint slides. Remember that “less is more”, shy away from too much text and too many (if any) bullets and become visual.
Check out some of the books, I recommend towards the end of the slideshow. You will also find links to fabulous examples of presentations that will inspire you in your own Presentation21 Design.
Great post! I love the presentations that have no words or just a couple keywords in each slide and try to remember that the slides are for learning now, not meant to be a handout later. Rehearsing becomes even more important when presenting this way as the presenter doesn’t necessarily have the safety net of text notes on the slides.
We could discuss what role a presentation plays at all in learning, as we know real learning happens in a more active environment through social interaction versus passively listening. That said, presentations can inspire or bring awareness to key ideas which could then lead to actions which promote learning and, in the case of teachers, implementing new teaching practices.
Build in interactivity, discussion, even active responses or decision-making into presentation slides so a presentation becomes a learning experience.
Great post! I love all the graphic organizers and diagrams you use in your own presentations Sylvia!
Danny Maas recently posted..TILT – Create a Classroom Magazine with PowerPoint
What a great post to start me thinking of and planning for the next school year this summer. I have tried to incorporate visual literacy and presentation techniques in my English classes. Some teenagers do protest, though, not seeing the relevance of this for learning English as a language. It takes a lot of persuasion to make them think more holistically. If students keep producing boring bullet-point ‘death by Power Point’ work, we teachers have only got ourselves to blame! The visually more engaging products need a lot of modelling by us teachers first. Thank you for inspiring me, and providing useful links.
sinikka recently posted..Together across continents
[...] 3. Langwitches – Popular amongst fellow educational bloggers, this blog has been nominated as the “Best Teacher Blog” for the 2009 Edublog Awards. It was also listed as one of the Top 100 Language Blogs in 2009 and 2010, and nominated as the “Best Resource Sharing Blog” and “Best Tech Support Blog” for the 2008 Edublog Awards. Recommended posts: “Infographics- What? Why? How?,” and “Presentation21 Make-Over.” [...]
[...] By following this link and that in ways I can lo longer remember or re-create, I also have found and read some wonderful articles and sites. Â How to manage this, how to share it, how to make one of those line-ups down the side of the blog of great things found? Â Don’t know yet! Â Looking forward to finding out. Â But here are a couple of (to me) fun and useful ones, just linked here until I learn a better way: Â Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom , Once Upon a Time in Afghanistan, 100 Awe-Inaspiring Black-and-White Photographs, and Presentation21 Make-Over. [...]