I do a lot of teaching and presenting—in the police academy, during in-service training, at conferences, at university classes. These days, virtually every instructor or presenter uses a PowerPoint and an LCD projector. I’m no exception, although lately I have been on a serious PowerPoint diet: my presentations are shorter, the slides contain few words, and on a few noteworthy occasions I have passed altogether on the PowerPoint, and just talked. Despite the lack of slides, no one went to sleep—that I know of.
I must admit, after a couple of decades taking pride in clever presentations, I now subscribe to the less-is-more school of thought.
22 comments:
It's about time.
Chief,
All this modern technology and I still spend a ton on ink and paper for my computer. I do like having several thousand of my favorite songs available at the touch of a button though. That is if I can find the CD I copied them to.
Gun Nut
Gosh, I wish you were my instructor...I have a professor that "Death by PowerPoints" us every week! Less is more a lot of the time!
Loved the walk down memory lane with the transparencies.
Over the holidays my teacher wife and 15 year old daughter was going through her home office. My daughter found a file full of old transparencies. My daughter had never seen them in action, and I was told it was an interesting conversation. Ranks right up there with a rotary dial phone, like the one on the wall of my parents farm house.
I've never seen a PowerPoint I didn't dislike. When I was busy getting my master's degree at Doane, there were several occasions where we were required to give presentations. Earlier at SCC, I actually took a quarter-long class on PowerPoint. The two main "rules" in the class were to put nothing on the slide that wasn't large enough to be read by everyone in the room, and to refrain from reading the bulleted points on the slide aloud. Nearly every PowerPoint presentation I've seen since then used slides no one could read without enlarging them, and the presenters read nearly every bulleted remark word for word.
I am of the school that the longer the powerpoint, the weaker the presentation..
Chief-I make several presentations every day and train people to do the same. Rule number one is KISS.
Rule number two is "don't be a dumptruck". By that I mean use one piece of literature to make your point, not the entire encyclopedia. That holds true for powerpoint as well as paper.
256
Chief, you might want to explain to people why, during a PowerPoint presentation, we refer to the computer screen as a slide.
Here's a power point presentation about Pirates.
anonymous 11:00 AM,
The presenter would plug in one of these, into which several of these would be instered, hence we still call it a "slide."
Did someone say Carousel?
There is a lot of similarity between a two or three tray slide show of someone summer vacation and a drawn out Powerpoint presentation
CAR 54
Arrrg!
You forgot the last slide, where all the remaining pirates moved to Somalia.
4:07,
Wow, what a clip. I think I need to watch that series.
Chief,
B1-003966 - would that be the third non-drug-related HIR in your LPD career, or does the count still stand at two?
Chief, there is no greater sleeper than reading a powerpoint word-for-word to your audience.
(My own pet peeve to ponder)....
Nothing more to see here...
Move along.
Chief...
You have NEVER watched Mad Men??? Oh, you would LOVE that show. If you have Netflix they will send you the whole series on DVD...hehe
Enjoy!
~V~
9:38-
Your magic 8 ball needs to be serviced. My count hasn't changed. ;)
V-
I live a sheltered life. My daughter, Kelly, has the season on Blu-Ray, and I'll try to borrow it. Everything about the set--clothes, furniture, cigarettes--reminds me of my Dad's office when I was about 10.
Chief,
I thought so. I didn't figure they hit that house for the valuable artworks one usually finds on the walls in that subdivision.
Chief,
re: B1-004455 - it seems odd that a person thrifty enough to rathole that pile of cash would toss away a pile of money on renting a home each month, especially one in (for Lincoln) a higher-crime neighborhood.
If I were to bet the farm that none of the residents were involved in any gang or illegal drug activity, would I wind up farm-less?
By using LCD projectors in school, teachers can reach a generation of students who have grown up with computers. Modern students appreciate when a teacher ditches blurry and messy overhead transparencies in favor of clear LCD images. Students enjoy seeing, hearing and interacting with technology rather than simply reading a textbook or listening to a lecture. This keeps the interest level of the audience high.
Making a Powerpoint presentation is one of the most powerful and effective tools in giving information to a wide audience. Power point presentations can also be boring, dull or confusing depending on the techniques used by the presenter in designing the slides, text effects and the actual content put in these slides.
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