MICROSOFT
POWERPOINT
Background
information about Microsoft PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a package of Microsoft office suite
that is suitable for presentations. It is a software package designed to create
electronic presentations consisting of series of separate pages or slides. The
program gives everything you need to produce a professional-looking
presentation. PowerPoint offers word processing outlining, drawing, graphing,
and presentation management tool-all designed to be easy to use and learn. Considering
effective delivery and presentations, in 1987 April a Sunnyvale California
company called ForeThought released a product they called, “Presenter” for the
Apple Mac II. In August of that same Microsoft bought Forethought. At the time
it appeared Microsoft was more interested in ForeThought database product
called FileMaker+ - a product which they eventually dropped. Under Microsoft
management, Presenter evolved into PowerPoint and over the years, from being
one of the ‘other’ programs thrown in to form the Microsoft Office suite, has
developed into a premier presentation program. In 1988 Version 1, for the Macintosh and Dos was
released then later in May 1990 PowerPoint 2 for the Mac was released followed
by PowerPoint 2 for Dos and Windows. Many of the Microsoft products were
designed at the time to run under both Dos and Windows, however most of us
would not have recognize today the Windows of the time. Subsequently, updates
continued in 1995-PowerPoint- 97, 1997-PowerPoint-97, 1999-PowerPoint 2000, 2001-PowerPoint
2002, 2003-PowerPoint 2003, when PowerPoint “12”(PowerPoint) arrives
sometimes in the first time word, Excel and PowerPoint sharing a common
look-and-feel, a lot of the underlying features and commands should remain the
same. We anticipate that experienced users are in for a steep learning curve,
once the initial shock of relearning where to find functions wears off,
Microsoft advises users should enjoy fewer mouse click and thus better efficiency!!!
It is anticipated that this release will be most relevant to the image-conscious
PowerPoint user among
EDUCATIONAL
BENEFITS OF POWERPOINT
PowerPoint is now widely used in
lectures to science students in most colleges of China. We summarize its
advantages as producing better
visual effects, high efficiency in information transfer, precise and systemic
knowledge structure.
Disadvantages of PowerPoint may be induced by irrelevant information in slides,
neglect of interaction with students,
uncontrolled speed in presenting or too strict order of slides. Strategies to
avoid these disadvantages are proposed.
Producing
Better Visual Effects and Deeper Impression
The contents of a science lecture
is often abstract, sometime they are hardly to explain using chalkboard.
However, by presenting PowerPoint
slides inserted with pictures, flow charts, schematics, animations, even
video clips, the lecture may become vivid and
attractive to students. For example, in chemistry, the shift between
Speeding
up the Information Transfer
In a PowerPoint presentation, the
teacher can deliver more information than by traditional lecture. The amount of information transferred in a
traditional lecture is often limited by the writing speed of the instructor onchalkboard. But in a PowerPoint
presentation, all outlines were typed previously in slides. Especially, when instruction of science courses
need to present large amount of data, using PowerPoint could significantly increase the efficacy of a
lecture.Compared with chalk board-writing
in traditional lecture, a PowerPoint file can be easily copied, maintained, transferred and printed. To
students, the file maybe available on-web before or after the class, and may
thus be previewed or reviewed. This may
be the most appreciated feature of PowerPoint. When combining PowerPoint with web, the timing of
PowerPoint availability to students is important. If PowerPoint file is
available before class, students may feel
responsible for knowing how to use slides for taking notes, and they may attend
and participate in the lecture more
easily. On the other hand, PowerPoint presentation saves time for students with learning differences that
require more time to take notes, because they may download PowerPoint files from web and obtain organized
notes or handouts and accurately drawn graphs. Therefore, PowerPoint may enhance the performance of
students at class.
More
Precise and More Systematic
A well-prepared PowerPoint may
present students with more precise contents of science knowledge. Before
presentation, by editing or
reviewing the PowerPoint file, the teacher has enough time to check term
spelling,
expression of a conception or a
theory, logicality of formula derivation, as well as the precision of numbers
and data, etc. Therefore the verbal
expression in lecture would be more accurate and may be mistake-free. To students, this is essential for
correct and accurate comprehension of the science knowledge. After class, by collecting feedback from the
students, the instructor would easily optimize PowerPoint slides to fit the
students by editing slides.On the other hand, PowerPoint
slides may be systemically organized. The clear outline could be helpful for students to construct correct knowledge in mind.
Disadvantages
In spite of the numerous advantages of PowerPoint
package, it has some shortfalls. Below are few.
In a questionnaire survey
conducted on students in nurse major in a college of China, 28.3% of
participants
think the class using PowerPoint
is not helpful for their learning. In another question, 48.3% of participants
think PowerPoint is not helpful for
learning. Most of participants (81.7%) prefer a blending of PowerPoint
presentation with "chalk-and-talk"
lecture.
Irrelevant
information may be harmful
There are often some abstract or
even abstruse contents in a science lecture. If they were displayed in slides
by merely bullet points, the
interest of students would be reduced. In order to attract students' attention,
some instructor may add some
decorative but irrelevant figures or animations into a slide. Though students
might be more interested in the image-rich
slides than bullet points, unrelated graphics are not helpful for learning. A study using eye-tracking
technology confirmed that students devote more attention to highly relevant photographs. Another study also
found that students spent more time viewing task-relevant information and less time viewing task-irrelevant
information after instruction. Irrelevant pictures may even be harmful to comprehension of students. It was
also concluded that, as the interestingness of details is increased, student understanding decreases. This is
in consistence with a cognitive theory about multimedia learning, in which highly interesting details sap
processing capacity away from deeper cognitive processing of the core material during learning. Moreover, a recent study also
demonstrated that presence of task-irrelevant information impaired performance, therefore an effective graphical displays should not
display more information than is required for the task at hand.
Neglect of
interaction with students may make a lecture a monologue
Though the aid of a PowerPoint
makes the instructor more confident, usually the instructor's eyes will stay
more on the screen than on the
face of students. The lecture may thus lack eye-contacts between teacher and students. This may zoom out the
distance between them. A lecture without eye-contact, is similar to a
"virtual lecture" in some aspect. If the contents of a lecture is
not well-arranged, or if the instructor is not familiar with the contents, he
may tend to omit asking questions or
discussion with students. We noticed that many science students are relatively shy. In such situations they
would move their eyes from screen to textbook, thus the instruction would
become a monologue of the teacher. On the contrary, one of the
advantages of traditional lecture is that, with enough interaction, students
may easily catch the thought of
instructor. This merit of chalk-and-talk lecture may be the main reason for
that some professors are always welcomed even though they may
never use PowerPoint in their presentation.
Strategies to
avoid disadvantages
Use PowerPoint
as an assistant tool in education
A principle should be hold during
preparing and presenting PowerPoint. That is, PowerPoint is but a tool of alecture. Chalkboard writing, as
another useful tool may play unique role. For example, when comparing two
conceptions or processes, or
summarizing a table, the instructor may interact with students, leading
students step by step with questions and
chalkboard writing. The effect may be much better than the simple instruction
with a PowerPoint. PowerPoint could be useful in
specific instruction where dynamic models, animation, and variation of color may definitively help in the
better illustration of the key concepts. If students are expected to retain
complex graphics, animation, and figures,
PowerPoint presentations may have an advantage over traditional lecture. However, if students are expected
to retain information and/or concepts that are best conveyed through dialogue or verbal explanation,
traditional presentations appear to be best.
Design a
PowerPoint properly and delicately
Many tips for a good PowerPoint
had been introduced. For example, only place essential points on the outline slide; avoid using long
sentences, use key words and phrases instead; use proper font, size, color and
background; avoid using animation that may
cause distracting; use graphs rather than charts and data, etc. However, while applying, all above tips
should be considered again to make sure that they are suitable for the contents
of the lecture, and also for
students in certain major. For instance, graphics are not necessary for simple
declarative information, but may help with
more difficult, complex, or abstract concepts presented through lecture.
Communicate with
students in applying PowerPoint
In showing a PowerPoint, the
instructor should be very cautious about the feedback from the students. One of the characteristics of college
education is face-to-face communication. On which more attention should be
paid when presenting PowerPoint
to science students, because they may communicate less efficiently and less effectively than students of
social sciences. PowerPoint may become a barrier between teacher and students.
Explore new ways to use PowerPoint
It is indicated that PowerPoint,
internet and video have different influence on students’ perceptions of
learning and motivation. An instructor may
use a different mix of technologies in the classroom and use them creatively in order to promote the learning
of students and to satisfy students’ learning needs and objectives. By onscreen synchrony of PowerPoint
slides and recorded voice, so-called “e-lecture” may be delivered on web and serve as a useful alternation of traditional
lecture, either alone or combined with other methods.
Summary
PowerPoint is a powerful teaching
tool. Both its advantages and disadvantages should be recognized. The
employment of PowerPoint should
be based on the hypothesis that the instructor is very familiar with the
lecture contents and the audience. Only
on the basis of thoroughly understanding of backgrounds and needs of students, by flexibly blending it with other effective
techniques, the power of PowerPoint could be elaborated
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