Some ways to use and get the best out of PowerPoint

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Some ways to use and get the best out of
PowerPoint

• Learning styles
• Teaching styles and
• Technology

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Death by Powerpoint

• Increasingly seen and reacted against
• Scarcely an improvement over a boring lecture
• But it has lots of advantages
• How to make a less boring lecture and powerpoint.
• BUT look at File/Properties/Statistics
• - and take a deep breath when you see the time
  spent.
• Yet a powerpoint (chunk) has the potential to be
  a
• Reusable Educational Object.

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Note

• There is often more than one way to do things
• Presentation need to be student-centred
• Ways in which this can be done
• Linkages between applications
• Linkages between presentational methods
• Use all the senses

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What senses how and when?

• Visual - initial statements - lecture summary
• Visual - revising (individual/group)
• Visual - reminders they'd never see after the
  lecture
• Visual - note taking aids, print off the material
• Visual - reinforcement complex materials, using
  simple embedded graphics
• Visuals graphics and images
• Audio for revision and exploration
• Linkages via hypertext (within and between
  presentations)
• Feedback provision (e-mail)

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A few examples of where stresses have been
exceeded
Blocks from till
Slumps from Lias
Bolting in rock
'Riedel' shears across a road
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Soil classification and properties
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Strength parameters in more detail (see also
video)
Plot peak strengths
S
strength
S c sn tan f
F (phi)
The Mohr-Coulomb equation For total Stresses
cohesion c
Q What are the units?
Normal load sn
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Basic stresses
Stress directions normal to the faces
s
Normal stresses (sn)
Note that the magnitude of these can change and
the system still be stable as long as they are
all the same magnitude.
However, we can disrupt the system by adding
t
Shear stresses
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Audio?

• Insert an audio clue here (text)
• These symbols can be made quite small and
  unobtrusive and you can move them around on an
  image. Here's an example

Text versions 1 2
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Q what do you think this is?
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(Audio Clue)
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Where to go for theseUse the 'Insert' pull-down
menu

• Pictures from file (e.g. a list of scans drag
  and drop works well enough)
• If you use a 'new slide' style option with a
  'picture' then they self-scale to the area see
  next slide.
• 'Insert object' allows any Office 'object' to be
  located where you want.

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Other things to try

• Use the Notes section to supplement text on the
  main slide
• Try using hypertext links (again, go to Insert
  menu hyperlink)
• Web page/ppt documents/e-mail addresses can be
  used as hyperlinks.
• Please mail the module address if you need help.

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Other things you can do with PPT

• Prepare a Q sheet for students (e.g. a scene for
  interpretation), mail it out and ask them to
  annotate it, add material, etc
• They can then mail it back to you
• If different groups do sections of a task or
  problems then these can be brought together with
  the 'slide master' as a style sheet.
• You can add comments directly to a copy and
  return it as rapid feedback via e-mail. You could
  even add an audio comment!

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Add 'how to' snippets

• These can be on a website or linked in via
  hypertext links (see following)
• Can be used in a variety of places/sites
• Can be used to show good examples
• Use in relation to posters
• Can be used across the whole of the department
• Here's an example (Excel charting)

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Get students to make posters

• A useful skill (research students, and even
  staff)
• Concentrates the (student) mind, is active
• Useful for groupwork
• Eases marking
• Gets students to produce quality work focused on
  a topic
• They're cheap
• Avoid that 'primary school' paper scissors
  look
• Here are a few tips

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Posters

• Use A4 size (either format but I prefer portrait
  - go to File/page set up on a 'new presentation')
• Lettering should be Arial 8 or 9pt for main text,
  no more than 12/14 pt for the title.
• Import images (graphs etc) scale as appropriate
• Avoid images on the background
• Use the 'nudge' facility for alignment (bottom of
  drawing toolbar) and use up/down/L/R buttons for
  positioning of objects, text boxes etc.

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Other things you can do with Posters

• They can be assembled to give a point to group
  discussion or to circulate for peer assessment.
• Much easier to do remotely than with paper
  posters!
• Another example of asynchronous learning.

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Hyperlink Here

• Go to the 'document' tab and locate 'anchor', you
  can select the slide from this and the slide
  number will be shown in the bar at the top of the
  menu.
• You can then go from that slide (for example)
  back to the main show, as here. These links are
  active when you come to the slide show.

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More on hyperlinks

• You can even make links between PPT presentations
  and if you jump to another presentation it will
  automatically be opened in the slide show mode.
  Here's an example.
• Go to the ppt on Pedagogic issues. (Go to
  'select' from 'favorites' here). When you come
  out of the link on a presentation it will bring
  you back to the place you jumped from in the
  first presentation!

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OK, the usual fancy stuff!
But how about some video?
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Some other practicalities -things you'll need

• Time
• Some patience and practice
• getting the best out of PPT
• A means of uploading your PPTs (WebCT)
• A slide scanner
• A flat bed scanner (increasingly cheap, light and
  USB powered)
• A digital camera is a really useful aid
• (esp field trips, for revision)
• A digital microphone (or iPod) for audio input

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Adding learning opportunities to assessment to
feedback

• Imagination is important
• Linking in the tools provided by PPT
• Within an ALN
• Provide notes and revision
• Set short tests or problems, images to analyse,
  reminders about theory etc
• Material (ppt, answers, documents) for assessment
• Mail out responses, individually, post general
  feedback.
• Return to main talk

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