Can you relate to the PowerPoint examples? Describe some of your experiences. What where they missing?
It is quite astounding how David Phillips, in the video How to avoid death by PowerPoint, makes the process of making attractive and effective PowerPoints very simple. Phillips is quite articulate and describes five concepts that should be used in creating PowerPoints. These five concepts are:
- One idea per slide
- Working memory – use points rather than sentences for easy memorization.
- Size – the main point should be the largest.
- Contrast – to guide the reader to the important section in a slide.
- Dark – the background of the presentations should be dark to give clarity to the writing and to keep the focus on the presenter.
- Objects in a slide – avoid placing many points/objects in a slide. Six points are ideal.
Personally, I can relate to Phillips’ example because I have also had ‘near death experiences’ due to poor PowerPoints. I usually find many PowerPoints by my colleagues at work jammed up with content. These presentations are less effective in transmitting their message. One of the main ideas of learning theories, such as cognitive theories, is ensuring that the learner retains what they have learnt (Mayer, 2014). However, with a poor presentation this cannot be achieved. I believe that what these poor PowerPoint presenters are missing is the video by Phillips. Phillips points out that it is better to have one idea in each slide and create more slides, than to have many ideas in two or three slides.
Bibliography
Mayer, R. E. (2014). The Cambridge handbook of multimedia (2nd Ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Phillips, D. J. How to avoid death by PowerPoint. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpi1Lm6dFo