Visual Presentation Techniques

This week's assignment was, "Reflect on a presentation you have created in the past looking at how you would implement new visual presentations techniques to better communicate your message to your audience."

I use a large number of powerpoint presentations for my IB Biology classes. I started making them when I came to ISB and had a projector in the classroom. Before that, I used a variety of other presentation strategies, but the powerpoints were very popular with the students.

By student demand, I now have powerpoints for every bit of syllabus content. At first the presentations consisted primarily of images and some animations. The students, however, wanted to use the powerpoints as review tools and without the discussion that surrounds each idea and slide, were unable to effectively use them in that way.

I therefore began adding explanatory text, primarily for when they are using the powerpoints on their own. In fact, I sometimes skip slides in class, telling them that they can read them on their own time. For the majority of students this is a workable solution, allowing them the freedom to ask questions and discuss details without worrying about copying everything into their notes. Other students struggle, either because they try to copy down every word on the powerpoint anyway or because they lose focus knowing that they have a copy and can look at it later.

In the first case, the students do not engage in discussion because they are busy copying and also tend not to put ideas into their own words. This can prevent incorrect or imprecise wording in the short run, but reduced the depth and retention of important ideas in the long run. In the second case, valuable class time for sharing and actively learning is lost.

When I was redoing one of my powerpoints, I tried to further limit the text that I put on one slide. There is tension between keeping a process coherent and breaking it into small enough pieces to be presentable. The powerpoint ended up being much longer, with more repetitive images (part 1 of process A, part 2 of process A, part 3 of process A, summary slide showing parts 1-3 of process A, etc.) I'm not sure if it turned out better, but it was an interesting process.

Another idea was to put the text into the presenter's notes so the students can't see it during class but have access to it during review. I know this would make some students uncomfortable, but I plan to give it a try in a later lesson.