PowerPoint - Useful How-To References for Educators

Most people in higher education already have access to and some experience with PowerPoint, although most have not gone deep enough into PowerPoint's capabilities to realize what a powerful, rich tool it is. Please click on "comments" or "post a comment" just below this posting to leave your suggestions for other resources about good educational uses of PowerPoint. See more detail than you probably want or need about how to ensure we receive your comment/suggestion at the very end of this posting in italics. Thanks for your help! Steve Gilbert

Here are some useful references (URLs working well as of 6/2/2007) about how to use PowerPoint for educational purposes:

• "STEVEN BELL'S PowerPoint and Presentation Skills Resource Page"

• "Improving Your Use of Presentation Software: A Flashight Resource" from Steve Ehrmann, the TLT Group

• "Evaluating Student PowerPoint Presentations" from Claremont McKenna College Teaching Resource Center

• TFPL Blog Posting "Using PowerPoint"
• "5 Things About PowerPoint" by Russell Davies. 8.5 minutes YouTube video. You'll know immediately whether you find this very home-video style charming or irritating. I found it charming, esp. when Davies young son Arthur introduces himself. More important, several solid suggestions about planning a PowerPoint presentation - including the idea of "cutting it in half" when you're near the end of your editing process. - Steve Gilbert 6/2/2007
• "Active Learning with PowerPoint" from U. Minnesota Center for Teaching and Learning. Much of this is really good BUT PLEASE DO NOT CONTINUE THIS PRACTICE OF HAVING THE MEDIUM CONTRADICT THE MESSAGE! Lots of ideas, references, "tutorials". Note that most of the tutorials are brief talking head video clips with some audio "clipping" - and some appear to have been made with the speaker standing in the corner of a men's restroom. No examples of PowerPoint USED! Why would thoughtful, helpful people produce materials that are almost entirely either straight text (Web pages), lists of references, and low-quality talking head videos WHEN THEY ARE TRYING TO TELL US ABOUT HOW TO USE POWERPOINT FOR ACTIVE LEARNING?

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