2. PowerPoint Basics Copyright Michael Scally 2005. All Rights Reserved.

3. Table of Contents 6 X 6 Rule Background Colors Color Evolution of Literacy Font Styles New Literacy PowerPoint is… References Text Colors Text Size Wait Time

4. A New Literacy We are experiencing a new literacy. “According to Time Magazine, for example, the vocabulary of the average 14 year-old dropped from 25,000 words in 1950 to only 10,000 words by 1999.” (Burmark, 2002, p. 8)

5. Why? Television was invented in the 1940’s. World War II created a technology explosion. Computers were invented in the 1960’s. Television replaced the radio as the main form of family entertainment.

6. Since Then... Technology was been increasing at a incredible rate over the past 7 decades. Today, new technology becomes obsolete in as little as 18 months. So, the world is changing and the world of education is changing with it.

7. The Evolution of Literacy Society Type of Literacy Tribal ----------------- Oral Tradition Scribal --------------- Phonetic Alphabet Typographical ---- Mass-produced books (1490’s) Cybernetic ---------- Telegraph (1860’s) & Computers (Today) Thornburg, 1999, p 30 – 44)

8. During My Lifetime Pen/Pencil and Mimeographs Manual Typewriters Electric Typewriters Word Processors Computers The World Wide Web

9. PowerPoint is … A presentation software to HELP speakers give presentations. The PROBLEM with PowerPoint is that too often the media has become the message.

10. Design Basics The most important ingredient of PPT slide design is COLOR. Slide Background Colors The three best colors for backgrounds are the cool colors Blue, Green, and Purple

11. Text Colors The two best colors for text are the warm colors Red and Yellow (depending on your background color. As you can see, white works well too. Text colors should contrast with background colors.

12. Font The two most important things to remember about typography are: 1. Type is on the page to serve the text, and 2. There are no good and bad typefaces: only appropriate ones.

13. Font on the Web Consider using fonts like Georgia (with serifs) or Verdana (without serifs). Both fonts were designed specifically for the web.

14. 6 x 6 Rule Each slide should have NO MORE than six words across and six words down (with size 28 font). The human eye becomes fatigued with more words on a slide.

15. Background Colors The best background colors for your Presentations are: Purple, Blue, & Green.

16. References Burmark, L. (2002). Visual literacy: Learn to see, see to learn. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Thornburg, David D. (1998). Brainstorms and lightning bolts: Thinking skills for the 21st century. San Carlos, CA: Starsong publications. Thornburg, David D. (1996). Campfires in cyberspace. San Carlos, CA: Starsong publications.

17. Everything 6 COLOR4 “Shoppers, for the next five minutes there’s a blue-light special in aisle five.” “This painting has a nice warm feeling about it, all that yellow and orange.” “Hey, George, sorry to hear about your pink slip.” “Captain, that passenger by the railing looks a little green. I think he might barf.” Though not all colors have universal associations, every culture on the planet lives in a world whose colors have assumed powerful metaphorical significance.” p. 31, Burmark **“…color evokes responses and contributes to meaning in powerful ways. Colors are the basic building blocks of visual literacy. the most immediate and powerful element of the images we see.” p. 32, Burmark A German study found that the best colors for classrooms were light blue, yellow, yellow-green, and orange. The study found that by using those colors, teachers could raise students’ IQs as much as 12 points. p. 35, Burmark

18. Everything 5 PROXIMITY AND ALIGNMENT “We can use heads, subheads, spacing, and alignment to boost readability.” p. 27, Burmark. FONT FEATURES It’s still most common to use italics for emphasis within text, and brief usage of it works well. But be careful not to use italics for long, extended blocks of texts. It becomes tiring and boring to the eye and quickly defeats its own purpose.” P. 28, Burmark ON THE BLINK As you read across a page or screen, your eyes can usually process twice the alphabet (52 characters) before you blink. One you blink, you lose your place; if that happens often enough, you start yawning and soon find the effort too great to continue.” p. 28, Burmark

19. Everything 4 TRACKING The space between the characters in all typefaces. “Typefaces that are spaced tight for print (Times, Helvetica, Narrow, Britannica Bold, Tekton,, Lucinda Bright) would not work well as screen fonts. As type-meister Daniel Will-Harris points out, both Georgia and Verdana typefaces are carefully spaced so the characters never touch – and that makes them especially readable as screen fonts.” p. 27, Burmark

20. Everything BACKGROUND 1 We are experiencing a new literacy. “According to Time Magazine, for example, the vocabulary of the average 14 year-old dropped from 25,000 words in 1950 to only 10,000 words by 1999.” p. 8, Burmark. Educators have long known that “Combining visual images with written text can help students remember what they read.” p. 9, Burmark. “…the use of visuals in instructional materials takes on a larger dimension than when simply thought of as decorative supplements to text. The simple use of visuals with text can provide that dual code that can, in turn, increase comprehension.” p. 9, Burmark. “They (Levie and Lentz) also calculated that groups using illustrated texts performed 36 percent better than groups using text alone on measured criteria.” p. 10, Burmark.

21. Everything 2 “In a recent issue of its monthly newsletter, Meeting Guides, 3M reviews additional research on “The Power of Color in Presentations” Color visuals increase willingness to read by up to 80 percent. Using color can increase motivation and participation by up to 80 percent. Color enhances learning and improves retention by more than 75 percent. Using color in advertising outsells black and white by…88 percent. p. 10-11, Burmark p. 20, Burmark FONT ON THE WEB

22. Everything 3 READABILITY3