How To Avoid Death By PowerPoint

IF YOU WANT SOMEONE TO REMEMBER YOUR MESSAGE TELL THEM A STORY

Build Your Story First PREPARE “How much text should I use?” When you provide handouts: Everyone starts reading and stops listening. “But this is important the understanding the story” Avoid sentences that are used when talking “More words, less sentences” Action words that enhance viewer experience

Do I really need to use slides for this presentation? Ask Yourself… Do I really need to use slides for this presentation? The slides are for the speaker, not the audience. You are the presenter, PowerPoint is a presentation tool What message are you trying to communicate and what is the best method to do so. Can you use other visual methods – whiteboards, flipcharts, handouts, etc What else is effective? Stories, demonstrations, role playing, peer to peer learning, etc.

Keep It Simple Limited # of Slides Avoid “Bells & Whistles” Focus on Information The Projector Test Contrasting Colors Easily Understandable Keep your slides simple, concise, and succinct.

Text Do not load your slides with too much text because people will start reading and stop listening because regardless of what people think the brain cannot multitask which means your will lose your audience for several minutes while they read everything on the slide and some people read faster than others and they will start fidgeting in their seats while they wait on the others to finish which means that you could literally (in the figurative sense of the word) eat a breakfast burrito in the time it takes everyone to read all the words on your slide well maybe a McDonalds breakfast burrito because they’re kind of small. 3 – 6 lines, 3 – 6 words

Images Images are another element that can drive your point home even more Images need to relate specifically to the message being communicated. Stop using standardized pictures with vague meanings.

Change blindness is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it. For example, observers often fail to notice major differences introduced into an image while it flickers off and on again. Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is a psychological lack of attention that is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight.

How Much Can Students Process? What Happens With Cognitive Load? What is Cognitive Load How Much Can Students Process? What Happens With Cognitive Load? Research Tells Us… What Can We Do Differently? In a nutshell, cognitive load is defined as the amount of information our brain’s working memory has to hold, process, and retain new information. Everyone has a certain brain capacity, and everyone’s working memory is different. When an individual has to process too much, the information becomes progressively more challenging to manage. In the classroom environment, a student’s ability to process new information can be affected by the content as well as the environment. Sometimes the way that we present new information can be distracting, and take away from the learner’s ability to process the information. Volumes of research has been conducted on this topic, and researchers suggest that when the instructor lightens the load, it will be easier for learners to process and retain. Much of this research suggests that using PowerPoint slides while reading them aloud presents too much sensory stimulation to allow the learner to optimally retain the information presented. Most instructors have identified methods of instructional delivery that they think are good or bad… but sometimes we may need to step back and re-evaluate the way that our students are absorbing that information. Have we presented too much information at once? Are there external distractions that might make it difficult to process the new information?

How Much Can Students Process? What Happens With Cognitive Load? Research Tells Us… What Can We Do Differently?

Maximizing PowerPoint Limit Slides & Slide Content Use RELEVANT Images/Diagrams Use Animation Think Accessibility Templates, Themes - HIGH CONTRAST Hyperlink Content

Change blindness is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it. For example, observers often fail to notice major differences introduced into an image while it flickers off and on again. Inattentional blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is a psychological lack of attention that is not associated with any vision defects or deficits. It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight.

How many concrete supports are visible above the players? 11 8 9 5

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How many concrete supports are visible above the players? 11 is not correct. Click here to try again

How many concrete supports are visible above the players? 8 is not correct. Click here to try again

How many concrete supports are visible above the players? 9 That’s Correct! Click the Smiley Face to Continue.

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Volumes of research has been conducted on this topic, and researchers suggest that when the instructor lightens the load, it will be easier for learners to process and retain. Much of this research suggests that using PowerPoint slides while reading them aloud presents too much sensory stimulation to allow the learner to optimally retain the information presented. Click to go back.