Gary Klatsky wrote: I have a bit of a problem with the �absolute� responses to the use of PowerPoint.Power Point is a tool and like any tool it can be used effectively or to an extreme where it is distracting.I have a horrible handwriting so I have put all of the material I want to present to my class in PowerPoint presentations.
I just wanted to add my agreement to Gary's. PowerPoint has improved my teaching in two ways. First I tend to drift off topic when students bring up an important question and the clear readable outline on the overhead allows the students to see where I left the topic and when I came back to it. The overhead outline probably helps me come back on topic more quickly as well. About one third of my students mention these tangents as the most important things they learned in the course and about one third used to complain about the disorganization of my lectures. They all now say the lectures are very organized and still one third appreciate the tangents. The second and more important thing that PowerPoint has done relates to the handouts that can be printed from the slides. I had a learning disabled student that had a accommodation agreed to by the administration which involved giving him a copy of my lecture notes. My lecture notes are completely unreadable to anyone but me. I had overheads which I found easy to convert to PowerPoint slides and I made him a set of handouts. He was thrilled and he did so well I thought, "Why not make the handouts available to all students, if they wanted them?" The students all wanted them and reported finding these very helpful. My students seemed to be more attentive and they wrote many more notes. They said these were more helpful because now they could write down what the lecture ideas triggered for them. They also began asking better and more interesting questions. We found that printing two handout slides per page was best for their notes. I do a lot of application type questions in discussion sections and on tests and students found these handouts extra helpful when they were trying to apply the ideas to "real life like" problem situations. Advanced students also reported that these notes were very helpful when studying for exams and GRE tests as well as our comprehensive test for the major and minor in Psychology. I don't use the backgrounds and only recently has our media center installed computers in our classrooms so I have used these as overheads rather than computer slides but that is changing. I also use brief phrases in these outlines rather than completely detailed sentences. I thought it might deprive the students of the opportunity to write out the outline and thus reduce learning but that hasn't seemed to be the case. In fact I was in a colleague's class the other day and found myself missing about one quarter of what he was saying because I was so focused on getting his outline written down. I really found that to be irritating and a significant block to learning. I get a bit angry when I go to a conference and the presenter doesn't give me a copy of their slides. It is so easy to make the handouts and I often find I want to make notes on graphs and charts as well as on the topics. If there is evidence that providing this kind of information is detrimental to learning I haven't come across it in my classroom or in my experience. I can see where it could become too distracting but it has been a significant help to my students. Bob Grossman Professor of Psychology Kalamazoo College [EMAIL PROTECTED]
begin:vcard n:Grossman;Robert tel;fax:616-337-7030 tel;work:616-337-7108 x-mozilla-html:TRUE url:http://www.kzoo.edu/psych/ndex.htm org:Kalamazoo College;Psychology adr:;;1200 Academy Street;Kalamazoo;Michigan;49006;USA version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] title:Professor fn:Bob Grossman, Ph.D end:vcard
--- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
