Chapter 1 synopsis

EDTC 6340.60

Marivel Correa

Chapter 1
Tweaking presentations

As I was reading this chapter, I realize that PowerPoint is a very powerful tool that we use to present info almost every single day. As educators what we need to create is a dynamic slide show so we don’t lose our students while presenting to them. In They Snooze You Lose, Lynell Burmark, (2011) talks about how to tweak our PowerPoint presentations in order to achieve better results. I have used PowerPoint software plenty of times, and, after reading this chapter, I thought about how nobody has shown me how to create an effective PowerPoint. I was told in many of the courses that I took a little bit about the basics of a presentation, for example, the color of the font or the number of words per slide. However, I am willing to learn how to master this tool with the help of this book because what I really want is to show my future students memorable performances so they will be able to internalize the information presented on my PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, I would like to prepare them to do this as well.

This chapter covers three main categories that we need to take in consideration when it comes to design a successful PowerPoint presentation, which are the template, the color and the type (p 5). According to Burmark (2011), our templates need to help us clarify the message we want to send the audience. In addition, he defines color as a pedagogical imperative. We need to think about how are we going to use our PowerPoint; what are we going to teach our students? Once we have all that clear, then we decide which template we want to use and the color selection. For me the most important thing is to not overwhelm the audience. We need to keep it simple but attractive. According to Burmark (2011), the color will help to increase motivation and participation, as well as, to enhance learning and to improve retention. Indeed, we are selling our content to the audience with the color and with the template we chose. As educators, we need to get our students attention in order to enhance their comprehension of a concept by enriching our presentations. Burmark (2011) suggests us to use fonts that are simple and legible; to present information from left to right; to reduce the number of words per slide, no more than 40 (p 12). It is better to guide our audience through the presentation with meaningful chunks of information in each slide.

References

Burmark, L. (2011). They Snooze You Lose: The educator´s guide to successful presentations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass