Presentation goes well beyond PowerPoint

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with PowerPoint since I first heard the term.  I was leading a training session and an outside consultant was taken with my methods, however she wondered why I didn’t include PowerPoint’s.  My response, “What’s a PowerPoint?” 

Later on I signed up for a small PowerPoint training workshop.  By the mid-afternoon break, the instructor asked me to train one of the older students because, “you’ve got this thing down anyways.”  If it was such a simple program that I could be proficient with ½ a class introduction, then I wondered if how it could be really as good as people were saying.


I like TEDx Talks.  Why, because beyond hearing powerful speakers and intriguing ideas, you sometimes can see the countdown timer that the speakers are trying to stay within.  It adds another dynamic element of presentation…will they go over the allotted time slot or not. 

With the reduction of lecture within the 21st century classroom, when presentations are needed, they should be dynamic and engaging. They should encourage the learner to go beyond presenting information to inspirational envisioning instead.

Effective presentations challenge assumed perception and force learners to consider alternatives.  Relegating learners to creating PowerPoint slides do not build strong oration skills. Allen Schoer (2012) brings up a great point as he encourages presenters to combine invitation, imagination and impact into their public speaking presence. If your audience fails to connect with your great ideas, than the bond between the story and the subsequent action is broken and nothing comes of your effort.

People are drawn to ideas and shared experiences, not techno-fancy software incorporation.  As an educator, always remind yourself and your students that the tools should not overpower the ideas.  Technological tools are the final polish on the points you are trying to get across. 

Although technology should not always be the primary focus of presentations, when incorporated into a presentation, choosing the right tool for the job can indeed contribute to a successful learning result (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011).

Suggested Multimedia Resources

·        Vcasmo is a video enhancement tool that allows you to incorporate a variety of software applications to present your message.  Users can include PDF’s, images, video, audio, slides and spreadsheets.  Additionally, the price is right to test it out – Free!

For online or flipped classroom teachers, this platform would be very helpful in creating personalized mini-lectures for students to refer to outside of the classroom.  One short presentation that I found really showcases the tool being used effectively is titled: Introduction to  Looking at DNA

 

·        Metta.io is also a storytelling application, but it additionally includes the opportunity to include polls and quizzes for the learners.  For the instructor, there is statistical tracking of the users accessing the presentation.  I found several interesting presentations, however when I tried the poll submission, the screen locked up.  Since there is a free option, it is certainly worth exploring this tool further.

·        ZooBurst is a 3D animated pop-up book creator.  While at first this may seem like a young child’s application, I assure you it can and is used in adult educational settings.  I was able to find a YouTube video where educator, Dr. Farley uses ZooBurst in her college classes.  For the English language instructors in class, I’d like to introduce a ZooBurst 3D book about writing an essay.  Audio can also be incorporated; however I was not able to find a suitable example at this time.

PowerPoint is not a bad tool, but it has been the only one we’ve had for quite some time and many are tiring of it.  It certainly has its place in the classroom, but to break up the monotony for a while I’d recommend mixing up formats until learners forget the Death by PowerPoint experiences of the past.

Resources

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Schoer, A. (2012, September). Manner of speaking: Mastering storytelling. Retrieved from http://magazines.toastmasters.org/display_article.php?id=1140160