TEACHSOC: Re: Effectively using PowerPoint

[Del Thomas Ph D]

If you have access to resources you may find that students working in groups can greatly benefit from and learn from making their own PP presentations.  This can be particularly useful for students when the content is difficulty or complex.   As even small groups will have students with more than one learning style  the struggle  will force them to go beyond  being consumers and receivers.   They collaborate become producers, creators, they have ownership. One of the challenges that they may encounter is most of the content is complex, fuzzy, organic and abstract random PP forces them to put it into a crisp mechanical and linear "box."  In some of the struggle the tapestry of social things can emerge from what ..... may have been considered misunderstanding. Del   Michael Johnston wrote: Dear Jack, Marty, and others,   Could you share some tips with us that you personally have found effective and a brief description of why?   One tip that I have heard regularly is “Don’t put large sections of text into PowerPoint.”  The argument is that the teacher then just ends up reading, which is even worse than lecturing.  This is generally correct.  BUT, this can be effective if used sparingly and appropriately.  For example, I know an instructor who assigns text by Weber.  What he does is to include a few slides with actual text, text that is very hard to understand, and then explains how to read this text.  The benefits to this approach are multiple: (1) everyone is on the same page, even if they forgot their book; (2) it takes less time to get everyone at the right place in the text; (3) keywords can be highlighted and easily pointed out; (4) instruction is layered with additional anchors beyond books and the instructor’s voice – the PowerPoint Slide and the instructor’s body movement as they point to certain keywords, etc. (5) questions about particular sections of the text are more widely understood by the class because the instructor can quickly and easily point to the relevant text (6) more anchors facilitates the instructor to lecture at more abstract levels   I’m looking forward to hearing more tips from others!   Best wishes, Michael      -----Original Message----- From: teachsoc@googlegroups.com [mailto:teachsoc@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jack Estes Sent: Monday, June 12, 2006 4:38 AM To: Marty Schwartz; teachsoc Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: lousy lecturing   I agree that PowerPoint can be a powerful tool in the classroom if it's not abused. We have workshops all the time in EFFECTIVE use of PowerPoint, not only for business classes but for anyone. I think they're good. They often include a 'best practices' aspect in which various profs bring in what works for them. I wonder how many schools do this? Our workshops are partially paid for by some big grant.   Jack Estes BMCC/CUNY NYC ----- Original Message ----- From: Marty Schwartz To: teachsoc Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 11:40 AM Subject: TEACHSOC: lousy lecturing   Gerry said: <snip> And again, I would put forth for argument the idea that the problem isn't the lecture hall, but lousy lecturers.  (One more bad Powerpoint presentation, and I will trash someone's computer for sure.)<snip> Gerry - as a friendly request -- with all of the Del's name calling, Del obfuscation, Del gobbledegook, etc. I seem to have lost track of what is going on.  Of course, being reduced to tears seems to me a perfectly normal reaction.  But, in your sentences above, what exactly IS the problem to which we are all referring?  Maybe I live in some kind of la-la land, but while I certainly know a few irresponsible teachers, I find myself mostly surrounded by very hard working people who do fantastic jobs teaching.  Maybe it is who I talk to, but I go to national conferences and am always inspired by what others do in their teaching (I am running a little nickel and dime workshop at ASA featuring the noted teachsocer Angus Vail, for example).  Often the community college people tend to be even more dedicated and better at their task than we are (even those paid at the same level as cafeteria workers).  Personally, I have won a stack of teaching awards, but as someone who is primarily a publishing researcher I am always in total awe of the teachers I meet (including, of course, Profs. McKinney and Ballentine!).   As to PowerPoint, which I love, I agree that too few people know how to use it.  Perhaps a positive note might be to start getting our regional and national associations, and our graduate schools, to start teaching people how to use it?  Management schools, PR schools and others now do this regularly.  But in Sociology I've never met anyone who took a lesson, or even had access to a lesson, in the style and design of PowerPoint (as opposed to the mechanics). Cheers.   Martin D. Schwartz Professor of Sociology Ohio University 119 Bentley Annex Athens, OH 45701 740.593.1366 (voice) 740.593.1365 (fax) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. 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