The use of presentation software (Powerpoint by most, I use Keynote) in statistics and related courses does not work for everyone, and may not be appropriate for the material.
For instance, my mentor in teaching statistics, John Kircher at University of Utah, began to switch to presentation software (at that time, about 10+ years back, he was using Lotus Freelance). He converted all of his lectures for his statistics course, his research design course and other courses (all for Ph.D. students in education). He took great advantage of animation and transitions to emphasize points. For each class meeting he provided students with handouts of the presentation with note-taking space. After about 5 years of presenting in that fashion he cut back to nearly no use of such software for such courses. He told me that he found it caused him to cover too much material too quickly so that he felt students couldn't track the information as well. He went back to his old chalkboard style because he feels that it slows him down to a speed that students are able to track. My personal experience in use of presentation software in statistics classes is similar, that it can cause me to do overly rapid presentation of the material. So, while I use Keynote for many presentations in psychology-content courses (I/O, Social, Environmental, etc.), in statistics and research methods courses I only use Keynote to emphasize things that are hard to show on the board and can be well-illustrated using animation and transition elements. So, I show how to use the tables in the textbook using Keynote, show pictures of important historical figures, and I use Powerpoint with Turningpoint added for 'clicker' presentations to check understanding and clarify misunderstanding. One other experience regarding presentation software (Keynote, Powerpoint, etc.): It is easy (at least for me, but I see it in other people occasionally) to feel I've 'written a lecture' when I've finished my Keynote presentation. What I've learned is that while I'm preparing the Keynote I'm mentally writing lecture notes. An hour or day later while I'm presenting, the presentation slides remind me of my ancillary points and illustrating examples I had been mentally constructing. The problem is, those points are not written down so that a year later when I next present the material I often don't remember those ancillary points and examples. Writing lecture notes is still needed, which I have to sometimes remind myself. Paul C. Bernhardt Department of Psychology Frostburg State University Frostburg, Maryland -----Original Message----- From: Jim Clark [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sat 3/27/2010 9:30 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Blackboard vs Whiteboard Hi Mike must teach statistics in a remarkably different way than I do. For stats, I do not think there is any substitute for boardwork ... one can develop material in an incremental fashion (often idiosyncratically depending on responses of class), can keep earlier work to point out correspondences (assuming sufficient boardspace) without having to jump back and forth, can coordinate calculations on one area with conceptual elsewhere (e.g., having tree diagram for partitioning sums of squares and filling it in as one does calculations), .... For the computer stuff, I tend to run SPSS and coordinate it with pdfs of analyses (we also have a separate computer lab which is coordinated with what I call a tutorial lab). As for blackboard vs whiteboard, I have no experience with the latter. But for most of my content courses, like Mike, I too have switched to powerpoint. Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> <[email protected]> 27-Mar-10 7:57:52 AM >>> Most of our whiteboards hang unused. Almost everyone has shifted to Powerpoint and projectors. Any kind of writing on a board is hard to see. Anything you can write on the board can be placed on a Powerpoint slide. You can also use the projector to show interactive software, such as SPSS demonstrations, and video. Finally, a whiteboard or blackboard medium never allows an adequate presentation for e-learning. Mike Williams Drexel University learnpsychology.com --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a891720c9&n=T&l=tips&o=1563 or send a blank email to leave-1563-13251.645f86b5cec4da0a56ffea7a89172...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263003&n=T&l=tips&o=1566 or send a blank email to leave-1566-13441.4e79e96ebb5671bdb50111f18f263...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=1573 or send a blank email to leave-1573-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
<<winmail.dat>>
