GREAT JOB GROUP! Here is my recap of the things I enjoyed. I liked Everett’s opening of explaining the anticipatory set. Anna had a tougher topic to explain, but was efficient in teaching the lesson to the non-musical people. Steph’s side note was classic…What a COWARD she is! Ben had a great intro with cool graphics, also spoke with great confidence and knowledge. Jackie’s PowerPoint had great slide content, much in the way of aesthetics, and evoked great emotion. David had great opening trivia about the spelling of Hawthorne, good knowledge of area (New England). Kate had a great topic that really represents her ideals and the idea of societal simplicity. Bryant topic was very powerful in that the statistics of poverty were astounding, and the revolutionary actions by “Che” were remarkable.
Since all of the presentations were so amazing today, the least engaging thing that I saw was Rhiannon fingers representing the countdown in the back of the room. I feel that there was a lot of rushing through information by everyone, and it was all in response to those five fingers! So next time, we all need to take a deep breath and speak slower, rather than speed talking.
A couple of improvements that I would make to my own PowerPoint would be to go with better background color on some slides, or even use graphics as a background wallpaper. This would be in addition to reciting my presentation a few times to gain better fluidity.
Surprisingly, after being anti-PowerPoint for so long, I have warmed up to the idea of using them to maintain a visual learning experience. This is strictly due to the fact that I have gotten to create/use them and my fear is now non-existent. Some pro’s of using this method is obviously the ability of getting through to the visual learner as well as having a guide or “pace car” to follow, and hopefully keep you on track. Additionally, I think that implementing sound bites and videos add to the entertainment factor, and potentially provide humor, which I feel is very important. Some Con’s could revolve around the typical mistake of reading from the PowerPoint as well as getting face-to-face with it and not speak to the audience. Also, in creating one, somebody who just throws one together is really subjecting the students to a badly designed, dry lecture. A quality product takes time and that isn’t always available.
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Jeff! This is a well written and hilarious blog! I love that you took the time to appreciate each individual's presentation. I would have had no idea you were so anti-powerpoint because I felt like your presentation was one of the more engaging ones. You had an excellent balance of things on the screen and interaction with the students.
ReplyDeleteYou are too funny! Your PowerPoint was great and I loved the last slide in particular. In fact, I liked all the presentations way more than I thought I would. That was a fun day!
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