The Power of Powerpoints

Powerpoints. I made WAY too many of these in high school. And seen too many of them done badly. Not that all of mine were good. I know that I tend to put too much text on my slides...I like to talk. ANYWAY, regardless of my experience with Powerpoint, I did learn some interesting facts when reading the articles that Ms. Belisle told us to ;-). I preferred the first two articles over that one by the sort of obnoxious "Bad Powerpoint" guy...he annoyed me a little. So without further ado, here are my 5 Guidelines for Making Powerpoint Presentations:

1. Don't EVER read directly off of the slides. I cannot STAND it when people do this. They sound like robots who have nothing else to say. Unfortunately, I have had teachers do this, too. This is oh-so-boring, so please refrain. Thank you.

2. Do not put too much text on the slides or else no one will pay attention because they are trying to read what's on the slide. I have definitely done this before. I cannot help it. Blank space to me looks like you did not put effort into the presentation. But apparently this is okay as long as you elaborate. I have to work on it...

3. Create original backgrounds. This was a new one for me. But it makes a lot of sense. Your audience gets tired of seeing the same old background over and over. It is more interesting and potentially more effective if you are creative with what you use for backgrounds.

4. Make notes for your presentation. Whether or not you hand them out to your audience afterwards, notes can be helpful for you to use when presenting because you do not have to look at the slides to cheat.

5. Do not use too many transitions or animations. While this can be a cool effect, it gets really old if you apply it to every slide. So use this sparingly.

So, if this was not clear in my entry, the quality that I think creates a bad powerpoint is when people read off of their slides. I really cannot stand it when a person reads slides to me. I can read. And I definitely learned a lot from reading the three articles, and Mr. "Bad Powerpoint" guy taught me some good tactics, even though I thought he was pretentious. Maybe I was reading the article in the wrong mindset. I apologize. I should not judge those who are trying to help me. On that note, I think I am going to end this entry. I'm starting to veer into a discussion of morals!

Oh and check out my animation! I am so proud of myself. I never thought this day would come. :-)