BELB Induction/EPD. Assistant Advisory Officer

Transcription

1 Gillian Stewart 1

2 CONTENT Introduction Key features of PowerPoint Advantages for use Improving the visual look of your on-screen presentation Improving the content of your presentation Delivering your presentation Navigating through your presentation Troubleshooting Problems with the projector Projected image does not fit No input or output Websites and on-line support resources Gillian Stewart 2

3 INTRODUCTION One of the most appealing presentation packages available within today s learning and teaching environment is PowerPoint. It provides teachers and pupils with a large degree of flexibility to design and present creative and professional presentations for classroom and professional development use. It can be used independently or alongside other well-established resources including visuals, overhead transparencies, videos, CDs, interactive CD-Rom, online materials and, in some cases, satellite television. All serve to enhance the quality of the learning experience. PowerPoint enables the presenter to get his/her point across whether by means of a slideshow of their presentation, or by using overhead printouts of the slides. Although presentations can take some time to develop, once created they are easy to save, file and adapt for future use, print off, modify and enlarge for students who have been absent or for whom the material needs to be differentiated. Through PowerPoint it is possible to take a combination of the results of work prepared in Word and Excel and add some special effects such as Flash animation and video footage to really get the point across. While PowerPoint does not lend itself to detailed explanations, it will provide teachers and pupils with an excellent opportunity to introduce, practise, reinforce and revise key learning points. The following guidance is designed to encourage teachers to create and use PowerPoint presentations while at the same time give them some basic tips to pass on to their students to help them do likewise.there is no question that if used in an imaginative and versatile way, PowerPoint can prove an invaluable tool in support of good practice in the classroom. Gillian Stewart 3

4 KEY FEATURES OF POWERPOINT AutoContent Wizards to take you through the development of common presentations Templates with over 36 fully designed text and graphical slide formats Auto Layouts which provide standardised slide formats, reducing the time to build most standards slides An extensive Clip Art Library with an Auto Launch button which enables you to pull down more clip art from the Microsoft Web Site The ability to add multimedia sound and video to your presentations Animation effects for true incremental display of feature graphics The ability to create and insert organisational charts into your presentations with Microsoft Organisation Chart Gillian Stewart 4

5 ADVANTAGES Teacher and class are face to face at all times a distinct advantage with some classes! Teacher and pupils can work comfortably, free from chalk dust It is easy to move back and forward between key points and slides using the appropriate keys on the key board For the artistically challenged, it offers the possibility of importing scanned pictures and images from clipart, the Internet and CD-Rom packages It facilitates the inclusion of movement, colour and sound PowerPoint can be a powerful motivator for all pupils, particularly for younger learners as well as reluctant, demotivated and less able pupils Although sometimes time-consuming to prepare, once completed and safely filed (with backups!), they can be reused many times and, where necessary, easily amended Gillian Stewart 5

6 1. Layout - IMPROVING THE VISUAL LOOK OF YOUR PRESENTATION Be consistent in your use of layout to ensure that related slides have a similar look 1. Background colour of slides Choose colours which contrast well but which do not clash and can be viewed at a distance and in a low light e.g. black text on a white background, white text on a dark blue or purple background, or dark blue text on a yellow background are good combinations Choose a dark background colour for on-screen presentations in larger venues Use a light background if you are making printouts of your PowerPoint slides for use on the OHT or as handouts Avoid patterned backgrounds as some patterns make it very difficult to read text. Keep it subtle! Special Needs: Use a blue background with a yellow font or a yellow background with a blue font for presentations for use with pupils with SEN. Orange or amber tones may also be used as background colours with appropriate font colours such as blue and yellow. These colours, according to research, are more likely to produce higher reading levels; For pupils with dyslexia (Specific Learning Difficulties) trial and error may be required to establish colours that the pupils are comfortable with. Avoid red as a background colour as this can make reading activities even more difficult for some pupils with SEN Gillian Stewart 6

7 IMPROVING THE VISUAL LOOK OF YOUR PRESENTATION 3. Size of Text Text should not be smaller than 18 pts. The following are MS suggestions: 44 pts for Titles; 32 pts for text; 28 pts for subtext 4. Amount of Text Aim for no more than six lines/bullets with a maximum of six words each Aim for no more than 36 words per slide! If a slide is becoming too long, then consider splitting it in two in order to avoid over-crowding Aim for no more than three plain slides in a row Gillian Stewart 7

8 IMPROVING THE VISUAL LOOK OF YOUR PRESENTATION 5. Fonts - - Choose - your font(s) very carefully pick fonts which your audience can read easily Limit the number of fonts used to no more than three per slide/presentation in order to keep things orderly and avoid a chaotic look If your presentation contains quite a lot of text, it is good to use a font such as Times New Roman or Century Schoolbook which are known as serif fonts. A serif is a small decorative mark that finishes off the stroke of a letter. In general it is easier to read a large amount of text when a serif font is used. If you wish, you can choose a different font for your header in order to provide some contrast with the rest of the text a common practice is to use a sans serif font for the header and a serif font for the body of the slide, e.g. Comic Sans for the header and Courier for the body of the text. A sans serif font has no decorative marks (loops/curls etc) to finish off the stroke of a letter, e.g. Arial, Comic Sans, and Helvetica. Sans serif fonts also tend to create a more casual, less formal impression Select a font colour which contrasts enough with the background slide colour to facilitate viewing Use bold font or a different colour of font to highlight new/recurring vocabulary, phrases and grammar points, e.g. verb endings, adjectival agreements, word order, subordinate clauses etc Special Needs: When choosing fonts for use with pupils with SEN, it is best to use sans Serif Fonts such as Arial and Comic Sans. Avoid Serif fonts such as Times New Bookman and Century Schoolbook Never use italic fonts or outline fonts in the middle of a document with pupils with SEN The use of fonts in a large font size (+100) may, however, be used as a colouring in activity to extend or conclude a task/lesson for pupils with SEN. Gillian Stewart 8

9 - IMPROVING THE VISUAL LOOK OF YOUR PRESENTATION 6. Special Effects these can add action and zest to any PowerPoint Presentation but 7. Slide Title Use effects which are appropriate and easy to identify Use symbols, graphics, animation and sound effects intelligently and creatively to emphasise key words, phrases and verbs etc in the target language BUT Apply animations with a light hand! Remember, less is more especially with pupils with SEN When inserting pictures, the common formats of Pict, Tiff, EPS, Gif etc are all supported Choose a succinct title which: Summarises the content Can be read at a glance Engages the attention of your audience Provokes thought, anticipation 8. Slide Theme Aim for one main theme/concept per slide 9. End Slide At the end of your presentation, consider having either a blank slide which will remind you that you are at the end or a slide which has a final closing message Gillian Stewart 9

10 10. Use of Language IMPROVING THE CONTENT OF YOUR PRESENTATION Use clear, easy to understand language in your slides Avoid similes and metaphors keep it very simple 11. Punctuation 12. Spelling Be consistent Adhere to the correct rules of punctuation Avoid capitalisation as a means of emphasis in the middle of sentences Special Needs: Use open punctuation with pupils with SEN. Make sure it is correct! Type with care to avoid unintentional spelling errors Refer to instructions for typing accents in Modern Languages when in doubt, or if you experience difficulty in achieving this through PowerPoint, then cut and paste the word/phrase Gillian Stewart 10

11 IMPROVING THE CONTENT OF YOUR PRESENTATION 13. Statistics Limit the amount of statistics Keep them simple, e.g. round off percentages 14. Readability Set up the slide show before using it with your class 15. Timing Allow about 1-2 minutes per slide, or more depending on the activities planned in the slide to provide practice and reinforcement of key learning points If you wish to rehearse the timings for your presentation, go the Slide Show option, then select Rehearse New Timings from the View menu 16. Slide Transition You can choose to move from slide to slide via mouse clicks or the timings which you may have preset as explained above If you want the transition between slides to be the same for the whole of your presentation, Select All while in the Slide Sorter View and the set the transition you require 17. Oral Delivery Avoid reading verbatim, as appropriate, from the slide. This can be boring and patronising for your audience depending on the context and situation for pupils, colleagues and parents! Gillian Stewart 11

12 NAVIGATING THROUGH YOUR PRESENTATION 18. Navigation To move to each successive slide, you can use either mouse clicks, the space bar, the n key, the or the key To return to the preceding slide, you can either use the backspace (delete) key, the p key, the key, or the key You can interrupt your presentation at any stage by blanking your screen black or white by pressing b or. for a black screen, or w or, for a white screen If you need to return (or go forward) to a specific slide, simply enter the slide number followed by the return Key If you move beyond the last slide, you move out of the Slide Show and return to the Slide or Slide Sorter View Gillian Stewart 12

13 TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMS WITH THE PROJECTOR 19. Projected image does not fit on to the screen If the data projector you are using will not support the higher resolution of 1024 x 768, reset the resolution of your laptop to 800 x 600 Move the pointer on your laptop to a space on the desktop and right-click Select the bottom option Properties When the window opens, click on the Settings tab and then move the slider control so that your Resolution is 800 x 600. Click OK. This will adjust the size of the text and images etc but it may not yet fit the presentation into the viewable area If the presentation does not fit the viewable area: Press the key labelled Fn at the bottom left hand corner of the keyboard and at the same time press the T key. This should reduce the viewable area to the correct size Gillian Stewart 13

14 TROUBLESHOOTING NO INPUT OR OUTPUT THROUGH THE PROJECTOR WHEN YOU SWITCH ON 20. No input detected on RGB1 If the display on the screen says No input detected on RGB1 (or something similar), simply press the Input button on the top of the projector until the presentation is displayed 21. No output through the projector If you do not have an output through the projector, the following sequence will move you through all of the possibilities: Use the key labelled Fn simultaneously with the Function Key F4 (at the top of the keyboard). This will move (toggle) between: 1. Projector only 2. Your Screen only 3. Projector and your screen 22. Correct connection between laptop and data projector If you connect your laptop to the projector before you switch either on and then switch the projector on first, then you should hopefully experience none of the above problems If you want to use your laptop as normal, then remember to reverse all of the above steps Gillian Stewart 14

15 USEFUL WEB LINKS TO HELP YOU CREATE DYNAMIC PRESENTATIONS 23. Websites which give further guidance on the use of PowerPoint Official Microsoft PowerPoint website A fun, online tutorial on how to create a PowerPoint Presentation from scratch. This website gives lots of tips and tricks to help you use PowerPoint to its fullest. There are answers to frequently asked questions, a list of keyboard shortcuts and lots of other good advice on a wide range of areas such as Printing Slides, using different backgrounds within the same presentation, use of fonts, editing drawings etc. A very user friendly guide with clear tips and guidance on how to start off, format and develop your presentation Good tips on all aspects of presentation design as well as hints for efficient practice and delivering your presentation 24. Websites which give royalty-free background templates and images If you are looking for a different PowerPoint background beyond what is offered in the Microsoft package or for something which relates more specifically to the theme of your presentation, then have a look at this website! There are over 6,000 professional multimedia backgrounds and photos covering 200 categories, including education. The JPEG (.jpg) images are all compatible with Microsoft PowerPoint and are available for downloading free of charge Gillian Stewart 15