PowerPoint vs. Lecture
A reader has asked me to comment on the issue of PowerPoint vs. lecture. I don’t see this as an either-or situation. In my three earlier posts about PowerPoint, I discussed things I had learned about using it and making PowerPoint slides available to students.
In the last 15 or so years of my teaching, I studiously avoided “lectures.” Instead, I used PowerPoint to enhance my classroom presentations because I believed it was important for students to see as well as hear material. It helped for me to think of PowerPoint as a technologically advanced form of writing material on a chalkboard, which is what I did in my early teaching days. Just as I wrote bullet points and summarized material on the chalkboard, I minimized content on PowerPoint slides. I did not write complete sentences on the chalkboard, and I introduced new points one at a time. The advantage of PowerPoint was that I could save material I had created–and that meant I could easily use it again and make it available to students. I also believe that the process of creating PowerPoint slides improved the organization of my material and improved my presentations. My PowerPoint slides were also my own notes to guide me through a presentation without being tied to written notes at a lectern. A remote control device for PowerPoint allowed me to roam the classroom.
In short, PowerPoint enhances your classroom presentations; it does not replace other means of presenting material.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I have a question for you and your readers about using Powerpoint - do you think that it is helpful for students to have access to the Powerpoint presentation ahead of time - to either print out a notes sheet OR to review the highlighted material. I go back and forth on this, but I think if I truly keep the material on the slides limited to the key ideas, their accessing it early will only give them a head’s up so as to allow them to prepare/read ahead.
I’m just wondering what you think about this.
July 27th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
This is an outstanding question. I post (on Blackboard) the Power Points I use, so students can review. I’ve never thought about giving them access before-hand.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:18 am
I have been a secondary classroom teacher for 13 years. I just discovered your website, and I have enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for your reflection, and your willingness (and effort) to post your thoughts. Very, very helpful.
August 26th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Great question on whether or not to make slides available to students. I work with instructors on my campus and observe teaching as part of my position. I find that when the instructor provides the slides before the class, students do not remain engaged in the presentation. I notice few questions and virtually no notetaking.
There is one exception, however. One instructor provides slides, but then requires the students to “teach” the slides. With the proper prompt questions, it can be an effective method towards active learning.
August 27th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Rosemary, did any of those instructors give the students “skeleton” PowerPoint slides? In advance of class, I made my skeletal notes available–mostly the slide titles. The slides gave students an idea of the organization of my material. After I completed the topic, I posted my complete slides. I did that after reading that research showed that was the way to maximize learning.
September 19th, 2008 at 1:53 am
Regarding the Power point method of teaching rather than Lectures in the class rooms, both has advantages and disadavantages over one another.
But from my point of view it should be done periodically so that the learner & presenter will be using it more effectively.
September 29th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Providing students with the powerpoint slides does nothing in terms of teaching students how to take effective notes themselves. It may promote better test scores, as the research suggests but in the vast majority of professional occupations the ability to take notes yourself on material where no powerpoint or other similar resource will be available is critical for success. If I am a counselor or physician, my patients do not come in with their powerpoint presentations of their symptoms, etc for me to download and use later. I have to be able to effectively take notes myself and synthesize the material.This skill is unfortunately being lost in the powerpoint generation IMHO.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:05 am
You raise a valid point. A few years ago, a student in my pedagogy course said she was going to require students to take notes and help them learn to do better at it. She wanted them to learn to take good notes because they would need that skill as reporters. I don’t know if she followed through on it.
October 29th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Interesting post — and great comments! I make my PowerPoint slides available after class (I occasionally posted them to the course web site prior to class & got lots of emails asking about this or that, so I now only post them after class).
@joel makes a point about students learning to take notes … to address that, I often make slides just an image or only a few words to remind them of the topic but not enable them NOT to take notes. On the other hand, in a hard-core class I had in graduate school, the prof spoke so quickly that I was eternally grateful that she included detailed PowerPoint slides so I could take whatever notes I could scribble down and then study the rest later.
Given that experience, I will sometimes include detailed notes on my slides to help students with complex ideas.
October 29th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I post my PPTs ahead of time, choice of 3 to a page or 6 to a page. Students seem to have no trouble paying attention and asking questions. My PPTs are mostly pictures, and fewer and fewer bullet points. These are graduate courses, BTW, and I am the person alluded to in an earlier comments who talks quickly. Also, much of what I teach involves learning to use specific tools (e.g., library classification schemes), The PPT pictures are pages or screencaps fron the tools, so it’s essential that students have copies in front of them (before PPT these were hard copy handouts).
November 5th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Hello,
I have a rather technical question I was hoping for some advice on. Like you, I use slides to enhance my lectures. I try to use images whenever possible, but have had trouble maintaing a repository of useful images. I had been using iPhoto, but it does not always play well with web captures.
COuld you talk a bit about the software you use to prepare your lectures and any tricks you have found for preserving materials?
Thanks,
~A
November 6th, 2009 at 11:24 am
I have been retired for three years. Looking back, I realize I did not use that many images. I do recall using images of magazine covers that I got from the magazines’ Web sites. I think there are Web sites with images that are in the public domain.