"The Tweaked Version"

After reading Chapter 1 and 2 of You Snooze, They Lose, I was able to return to my original Copyright presentation and make some major changes. I reduced many of the words to keep to a minimum of at least 20 and added more pictures to emphasize some of the information. I made sure that all of the slides were centered and balanced. This presentation is to be given to teachers with very little information to read and more information that will be shared by voice. As I was creating this presentation I became excited to see how it was developing and began to visualize how I would present it.

Edtc6340 tweakedczm

View more PowerPoint from Cynthia Zartuche Manrrique

Chapter Two, Creating Slides and Handouts

          Presentations are in the control of the presenter -- what information will be shared, how much time each slide will cover, and whether the presenter wants to share this information during the presentation by giving out handouts. Handouts are quickly becoming a thing of the past, partly because of new technology making on-line versions available via the internet, As Burmark stated in Chapter 2; “What a waste of paper for a handout! (pg. 27) Most times I have been able to provide a handout for students missing class or serving at a redirection center, but with technology today this is not much a problem when they can receive it via e-mail/Moodle. Another problem at our campus is that we have been limited on copies we can make per copier, which has teachers rething what really is necessary to share on paper with their students.

Burmark states that a handout should complement the slides to be used more for note-taking than a “follow-along as I read” handout.  (pg. 32) Most presentations should only give main points as the presenter “fills in” the information that needs to be shared.

The information being shared for presentation mode view needs to be both interesting and informative by adding not only words, but pictures that pertain to the words. Pictures can say a thousand words. (unknown) and as Mayer (2009) states in his book, Multi-Media Learning; humans process information in more than one channel, and the information-processing channels for verbal and pictorial knowledge are separate. (Pg. 9-10)      

                Keeping this in mind, I am getting ready for my students final presentations, I try to remind them  that they are the experts in their topic, thus, the less information they “read”, the more knowledgeable they have become. My students will not be giving out handouts, but will be required to complete a rubric on the presentations design, requirements and most importantly, the knowledge being presented. As Burmark put it, the handout is putting what the presenter thinks for the audience to decide what they think is important to remember or learn. (pg. 39)

Burmark, L. (2011). They Snooze You Lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Mayer, R. (2009). Multimedia learning, (2^nd ed). New York: Cambridge University Press

Chapter One - Tweaking Presentations

Teaching a 6^th grade Multimedia class, I have seen students go overboard with too much information or pictures, odd combinations of color themes and at times pictures being used as backgrounds. And even though these pictures look really great as a background, the problem then lies on choosing the right text colors to make them readable to the audience.

In They Snooze You Lose, Lynell Burmark, (2011) covers three main categories that will help make a better PowerPoint – Templates, Color, and Type. (pg. 5)

Templates
According to Burmark (2011), when creating PowerPoints, one should consider the way our brain works, reading from left to right, (pg. 5) so it is important for the presenter/student to choose their templates with this in mind. Background pictures may only lose the information being presented in their PowerPoint presentation.

Color
 Even though I went through a lesson about the Color Wheel and the importance of using prominent colors for presentations, students can go “color” crazy by adding the oddest combination of colors. But according to Burmark (2011), color visuals for audiences understanding and retention are in the 80 percentile (pg. 7), but choosing the right colors is most important for your audience captivation. I found it surprising that yellow text on a blue background was the number one choice of color combination.

Type
The choice of text is of utmost importance not only to the presenter, but more importantly to the audience. Using the wrong font could cause a misinterpretation or loss of interest to your audience. Burmark (2011) stated that the typeface you select should match your content to be able to get a good first impression. (pg. 21)
“Don’t bore me with your reading” is all I can say. Students have a habit of reading their slides when presenting in the classroom. I have told them that “less is more”, and that they are the experts of their topic and should be informative without having to “read” their presentation.  In Chapter One, it is stated by John Medina that the average PowerPoint  should contain no more than forty words per slide. (p12)
I like to imagine my students as “6^th graders in training“, as they complete their last and final project for the year. They will be presenting (without reading) this coming week. I look forward to seeing their project as we started exactly three weeks ago.

Burmark, L. (2011). They Snooze You Lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass