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Presenting Skills Lesson Three
We're
about half way through this course and will explore using the Powerpoint
program, a program known to man. Even persons who have not designed
and delivered a Powerpoint presentation, have more than likely been
in an audience where one has been used.
While the basic hammer in carpentry has been improved
upon by many variations of hammers, pneumatic guns, staplers, and
electric drills, the the function of the hammer has hardly wavered.
Similarly one might see that audio/visual tools which assist a speaker
have changed and become more sophisticated over time. Powerpoint is
one of the most user-friendly advances as a presentation tool. Just
as a staple gun can be used ineffectively in carpentry, so Powerpoint
has been misused and abused by presenters who apparently assumed that
a flashy Powerpoint was going to transform them into great presenters.
Understanding strengths and weaknesses of a good presentation is as
important as knowing how to add animation or sound.
While the use of a Powerpoint presentation is limited
only by the presenter's creativity and imagination, there are several
guidelines that will be visually more compelling and easy to read.
I recommend reading a design book such as "The Non-Designer's Design
Book" by Robin Williams. She recommends four primary principles: Contrast,
Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.
Proximity
Proximity means you group
related items together, organize the thoughts. Several items in
close proximity to each other become one visual unit rather than separate
unit. Be conscious where your eye is going next. Check it out by squinting
your eyes and observing what you see and where your eyes stop and
how they move.
- Avoid too many separate elements.
- Don's stick things in corners or the middle.
- Avoid equal amounts of white space between elements
unless the groups are part of related subsets.
- If elements are not related, move them apart.
Alignment
Every item on a page should
have a visual connection with something else on the page.
Centering is comfortable, safe and popular. But we
can strengthen the organization of our thoughts and ideas by aligning
in straight vertical lines either on the left, the right or down the
center. Consider the alignment of a paragraph caption for a picture.
Place the caption to the left of the picture and right-justify the text
so that the picture and the text share a common straight vertical line.
If you center, consider centering the message off-center,
perhaps balanced with a image or some art. Also if you center, make
certain that it's truly centered and doesn't look like poor left-justification.
|
You are warmly invited to attend! |
vs. |
You
are
warmly
invited
to
attend! |
- Avoid using more than one text alignment on the
page; don't center some and right-justify other.
- Strongly consider some alignment besides centering.
Repetition
The principle of repetition states
that you repeat some aspect of the design throughout the entire piece.
Repetition unifies and brings the piece together.
Use the same fonts for all headings and the same fonts for all text.
If you use multiple pages, use the same format on each page or each
slide of a presentation. If you change themes (in a longer presentation)
changing background or graphic images will help make the transition.
If you use bright colors, use brights throughout; if pastels, pastels
throughout. If you use stick characters in the images, use stick images
throughout. Use similar size images when a relationship is important.
- Don't over repeat to the point of annoying.
- Use repetition to accenting your presentation.
Contrast
Contrast must be strong, not whimpy.
If two items are not exactly the same, make them very different.
The easily place to notice a difference is between
the text in the body of a writing and the headings. If you change the
size, change it more than just a little; that looks like a mistake.
If you change the font face go to a very different font, a completely
different family of fonts. If you using a serif font (with the little
tails), don't go to another almost the same serif font, use a sans serif
(not little tails, like helvetica), and visa versa.
Of course, when making presentation with a projector
always recognize the need for bold contrast between text and its background.
Subtle may be artist but it may also be difficult to read. The eye focuses
on the screen better with there is a dark outline around the entire
screen. White letters on a black background is easier to read the black
on white.
- When contrasting, don't whimp out!
Skill Number Three - Presentation Programs
- Powerpoint
Powerpoint is in the same family
of programs as MS Word and Excel. Actually it's the third program in
the suite of three programs in Microsoft Office. So many of the features
we have explored in MS Word and Excel are the same including the placement
and use of icons, menus and keystrokes.
First Slide
Under the menu heading File, one
will choose New Presentation to get started. The resultant screen is
a bit different then other programs. You're essentially looking at your
first slide in the Powerpoint presentation, blank but with some suggestions.
You can use these or other suggestions or completely ignore them. For
now type the title of your presentation in the title, maybe something
like: Elation. Then type some in the subtitle space: My First Powerpoint
Fiasco.
Save the presentation but selecting Save under the
menu item File. Give is a short name and note the .ppt extension.
Note under Format in the menu bar there are the four
choices: Slide Design, Slide, Layout, Slide Color Scheme and Slide Background.
Click on one, try the options and then return to try the others.
Note that if you click on the text, you can edit the
text as you do in MS Word, including color, font, size, etc. To find
all those options click on View and then Formatting Palette, which will
appear on your screen, typically to the right.
Also note the five icons in the lower left of your
Powerpoint screen. Try them out. Normal view, outline view, slide view,
slide sorter view and slide show are the names of these icons. It shouldn't
surprise that we use the normal view or the slide view to set up the
slide. The slide sorter is great for rearranging slides, just click
and drag. You can even select and press delete, or click beside a slide
and drag over several slides to select them all. The you can move or
delete them. Lastly, you can do the Slide Show, the actual presentation.
Press on the esc on the keyboard to leave the slide show mode.
Another Slide
For another slide, select New
Slide or Duplicate Slide under the menu item Insert. If you choose New
Slide, you may wish to choose a new slide layout under Format. Or you
can delete the textbox that were forwarded to you and start anew. You
will have to double click on the textbox to delete it or drag it. A
single click allows you to edit the text. If you a Duplicate Slide,
you may again wish to delete existing boxes or you may wish to merely
modify the fonts and retype new content. Using Duplicate Slide re-enforces
the repetition principle of design. Note that you can click on the text
boxes and drag them around on the slide, including resizing them by
clicking on the corners or sides.
Now is a good time to reflect on your design before
you create too many slides. What about your alignment? Will you repeat
the same heading on all slides? What is the common theme on all slides?
Is the coloring good for projection?
Inserting More Than Text
You probably noticed some of the
other options then you used the Insert item in the menu bar, particularly
at the end of the list: Picture, Textbox, Sounds and Movies, Chart,
Table, Object, Hyperlinks. Probably no surprises here:
- Pictures and images can be acquired
from the Internet, your camera or a scanner. To get a picture from
the Internet, search for your picture typically using a search engine
like Google and selecting image; when you see an image you want,
go to that website by clicking on the image. View the full size
image by clicking on the prompt on the top of the page. Once you
see the image you want, right click (on a Mac hold down the control
key adn click) and save the image in your folder. Then back in your
PowerPoint program insert an image and find the image in your folder.
- Textbox sounds like the basis of
MS Word; click, drag and type
When you have textbox and you've selected the textbox, under Format,
click on Textbox and note all your options: orientation, transparency,
and more
- Chart requires a connection to
Excel (been there, done that)
- Table we played with in MS Word
- Hyperlink is also in MS Word although
it's still new to us
- Objects, a bit more challenging,
if you've never inserted an Object before but you've got everything
together, try it
- Sounds and Movies aren't impossible but it will
be a bit different (you will put sound in one of your presentations)
Setting up the Show
Setting up the slide show is where
we can go beyond replicating transparencies on an overhead projector.
We can set things into motion with animations, timers, sounds. The options
are endless. It's best that one experiences and discovers some of the
features.
A good place to start is with Slide Transitions
under Slide Show. Here you can
- set the slide to automatically advance and the length
of time before advancing,
- add a sound as the slide advances
- determine how one slide will transits into the next
- determine if this transition should affect just
this slide or all slides.
Custom Animation under
Slide Show allows one to animate with sound and transition-like movement
the textbooks and images. Using this feature you can
- choose an object to animate such as a textbox
- select a transition-like effect (animation) for
that object
- determine how the effect will start
- under Options, set a timer, add a sound and determine
if all or some text should be effected at once
The Assignment
Two separate and different presentations
and the topics are your choice. You will present only one in class,
your choice again. The criteria are
- Each presentation will be at least 10 slides
- Each presentation will be related to education either
as a lesson or a part of a lesson you will teach, a presentation
on education to peers, parents or other adults, or a presentation
that might be created by your students as an activity as a part
of your lesson
- Both presentations will use good design principles
- Both presentations will demonstrate the breath and
depth of the student's understanding of Powerpoint presentations
- One presentation will be advanced manually by the
speaker and the other will advance automatically
- At least one presentation will include sound and/or
movies
- At least one presentation will have a series of
bullets on a single slide that appear when prompted
- At least one presentation will be saved as a webpage
(manual advancement of slides recommended) and at least one presentation
will be saved as a movie (automatic advancement recommended)
- At least one presentation will include hyperlinks
that are manually controlled; at least one hyperlink will link within
the presentation and at least one will link outside the presentation
such as to a website
- Buttons will be used in at least one presentation
- Images and texts will be used appropriately in each
presentation
- Animation and slide transitions will be used appropriately
and will not be a distraction in both presentations
- One assignment will be uploaded on the the Internet,
the other will be attached to an email. Movies will be displayed
in class on July 18.
Scoring rubric
is available online to guide the creation of your presentation.
Coming with Next Lesson
Reading and reviewing the second
section of "Failure to Connect" with a reaction and responses to others
in WebCT.
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