image courtesy http://bit.ly/KgQCBo
As indicated in Just Breathe Pt. 1, Power Point Presentations and Prezi are both types of software that are capable of taking a presentation to higher ground. The following elements must be considered in order to transform a presentation.
1. Focal point –foreground and background; power importance- key image
2. Use of symbol- Students must defend their choices. When choosing a symbol, students are required to employ higher order thinking
3. All text is purposeful- colour, music, sound
4. Main point and supporting arguments- The brain is slow, therefore you need to do expository in many different ways. Even if it is an ode to “my shoe” you must have subsequent details. The human brain is slow, so give me the main point, and then reinforce it in a number of ways- music, sounds, variety of examples, words, etc.
5. Consistency- anything that is the same focuses on the message; as soon as there is constant change the brain is questioning why the change. Common conventions (caps, main image)- if anything is the same- the brain is attending to the meaning; if anything is different, the brain will focus on its importance and try to track it (scrambling to figure out what their trying to do rather than what their trying to say). The more consistency there is, the more we focus on the message. This is where you can teach conventions: text size, periods, grammar, the establishing shot in a film, etc.
When students employ these five elements, they you can reach higher ground quicker. As students need to justify their choices, it not only makes them accountable for their work, it also helps them transform their work. These elements help the students be critical, which allows them to make the move to transformational. As soon as you ask students to think deeply about what they are doing, higher level thinking is employed.
At the end of these presentations, it is important to ask students what the technology didn’t do, when asking why they chose that software, as opposed to what it did do.
When students consider the elements above, and defend their choices along the way, all that is left to do before a presentation is not to panic, but to just breathe.
*Special thanks to Wendy James for introducing me to these elements. Further thanks to Michelle Pantel for reminding me about them.
Good points, and really useful for students putting together presentations. I would add one other item that any presenter needs to think of, and that is fundamental to any presentation. Sequence. What comes first, second, third. And what is a big point vs. what is a supporting point, example, or story.
ReplyDeleteAll of our tools assume we can make pretty good choices along the way.
Thanks for sharing this!
The big point, supporting point is right in line with your #4, of course.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for the info Aaron. This journey through ETAD is making me think about daily tasks (ie: making powerpoints) in a different way. Interesting insights that I will try and apply from now on!
ReplyDeleteGlad I can help. We need to remember that we do not work in isolation.
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