PowerPoint

[Kyle Brown]

Do any of you use PowerPoint in your classes, and if so, do you feel it has enhanced your overall presentation? Or, do you think it is more trouble than it is worth?

I have considered this avenue for a while now but have put off taking the leap. In addition to teaching the class, I am also frequently asked to speak on CHL issues at various civic and community organizations. Many of the other speakers I have seen in this area use PowerPoint, but most seem to have techinal difficulties at some point in the presentation. Now, generally speaking it appears as though the speaker is able to overcome the difficulty in short order. Is it easy to learn to overcome these difficulties?

Finally, I advertise my classes in boothes located at the fair grounds and the civic center. I have seen other vendors use a "continous" or "loop" PowerPoint presentation at these events. These presentations seem to never be interrupted by techincal difficulties. Why? What's the difference in the loop presentation and the class presentation?

Thanks for your input. BTW, how do you promote your classes?

[txinvestigator]

I use powerpoint, and I have all of my slides as overhead transparencies too.

I like the PP because I put a couple of video clips in it to emphasize particular subjects.

Also it gives the visual learners what they need to really grasp concepts.

[gigag04]

I think he means having a technical problem with getting the computer hooked up to the projector and showing properly.

Kyle Brown: Not sure where you are located by if you are ever in the Bryan/College Station or can make it here I can totally give you crash course on how to solve 95% of "technical problems."

I'm a network admin for Texas A&M University and my office is right by the conference room for our dept (strategically located) and almost weekly I have to go in and help someone set thier laptop with our projector for a thesis defense or some other presentation.

It's very easy and if you can learn a few basic concepts surrounding hooking a laptop to a projector you should never have issues.

-nick

[dws1117]

gigag04 is correct. Mose PP problem are not a problems with eh software, but with the hardware and are easily corrected.

I worked as a stagehand for 10+ years. We worked many confrences and business meetings. Running PP presentations was one of the easiest things we did. People would fight over those jobs. It was easy money.

[jimlongley]

I guess I could be considered a former "power user" of Power Point. I used to teach technical courses and used PP very intensively. I included animation, sound, video, and anything else I could shoehorn in to my presentations to make them more effective.

I like and enjoy PP and never have had a technical issue that related directly to the software.

That said, it has been a couple of years since I used it much.

I did have one outstanding technical issue during a PP presentation once. I was teaching the eighth session of a short course in less than a month, so I had the subject matter and accompanying speech pretty deeply ingrained. I was teaching on site and the company had provided me with an almost impossibly small room into which to stuff me, my laptop, my projector, and eight students. And then twelve showed up for the class (a whole 'noter issue.)

About mid morning as I rattled on, keeping the course a little ahead of schedule so we could all go home early, me from Long Island to CHicago even, by getting out a little ofter noon, when one of my students raised his hand and asked if they should be seeing something on the screen.

Since the room was so small I was teaching with my laptop perched on a bookcase at the side of the room and the projector was behind me playing on the screen behind me, so that my students could see on the screen what I was seeing on the laptop. I was not paying attention to what was on the screen or the laptop anyway, I had done the course so much that a quick glance at the laptop to confirm that the slide had changed and I was off and running with my narrative.

The bulb had burned out on the projector and I had been teaching in front of a black screen for several minutes before anyone thought to question whether they should be seeing something.

Of course the books included the slides and notes to go with them, so if they turned their pages they were not missing anything.

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I also used to use PP to make my transparencies.

I used CAD software to draw my really intensive graphics, and then ported the drawings into PP, and used Word for the text of the notes portions, and imported that too.

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I wish I could get back into technical training...

[Kyle Brown]

Txinvestigator and dws1117, I agree that when operator, hardware and software are all on the same page (slide) the presentation will knock your socks off. But, any “malfunction� seems to completely distract the majority of the audience. The computer whizzes are focusing on how to fix the problem and the computer illiterates are whispering about a kinder and simplier life in TWBBG (The World Before Bill Gates).

Gigag04, I have seen laptops linked to both projectors and big screen televisions. The audiences I have observed seem to appreciate the TV. It is possible that the projector is not popular in this area because most arenas are not equipped with the proper screen/background. I appreciate your offer to teach me the basic concepts. I live in Abilene aka “Frontier Texas.� There is a good chance I will be in your area after September 6 but before Thanksgiving. I will let you know when/if plans develop. Again, thanks.

Jimlongley, most of the technical difficulties I have witnessed fall into two categories. Either the operator cannot connect the hardware properly or the operator cannot “advance� at will to the next slide/video clip. Often, these “technical� moments turn humorous. One day, two officers from Dyess AFB were presenting the finer points of the B1 Bomber to a local civic organization. The presentation was wrought with “gliches.� Finally, one of the officers commented that it was far easier to fly the B1 than to use his laptop to make the presentation.

I appreciate your responses. I'm going to try PowerPoint.

[jimlongley]

Jimlongley, most of the technical difficulties I have witnessed fall into two categories. Either the operator cannot connect the hardware properly or the operator cannot “advance� at will to the next slide/video clip. Often, these “technical� moments turn humorous. One day, two officers from Dyess AFB were presenting the finer points of the B1 Bomber to a local civic organization. The presentation was wrought with “gliches.� Finally, one of the officers commented that it was far easier to fly the B1 than to use his laptop to make the presentation.

I appreciate your responses. I'm going to try PowerPoint.

We were being given a presentation by someone who obviiously had no experience with Power Point, and she kept double clicking to move to the next slide, which of course, advanced two. I don't think she ever figured it out, and since I had tried to help her earlier in the class, with limited success and with a reaction from her that implied that since she was the instructor and I was the student I couldn't possibly know better.
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A few years ago I was partnering teaching a class to Bell Atlantic in Virginia, and my partner was somewhat vertically challenged. The room that BA gave us to teach in had two big monitors at the front of the room that we could display our slides on. This was actually kind of neat because we were able to display slides on one screen and, using the equipment we were teaching about, put examples on the other, adding a great deal to the course.

These monitors were suspended form the ceiling in the two front corners of the room, which was also convenient, but neither our host nor any of the people responsible for the room could tell us how to hook up the monitors to our laptops and equipment. Being a long time techie I took a look at the back of the monitors and made up a shopping list and off we went to the local Radio Crap and CompUSA.

CompUSA told us they didn't have one of the things I was asking for, but I was pretty sure they would have it, so I looked around and found exactly what I had asked for, and then badgered them into giving us a discount because they obviously didn't know their stock or what they were talking about.

I found it quite convenient to teach with these monitors, I am tall enough that when I wanted to point at things on the screen I could reach the examply without a problem, but my partner could not. Ever undaunted, my partner got out his pointer and used it to point at the screen. Since I had been using my finger, I knew the static buildup on the screens was pretty high in this air conditioned and very dry building, but using my fingers I had been able to slowly discharge the static as I placed my hand near the screen. My partner swung his metal pointer at the screen before I had a chance to warn him (and as a technical instructor you would think he would know better) he drew an arc off the screen that was absolutely amazing. His reaction was very gratifying and I used it as an intro to my "Controlling Static Discharge" lesson.