Session 4

Title: What’s the Point in PowerPoint?

Session Description:

PowerPoint has been around for about 26 years. It was created in 1984 as a greatly enhanced version of the overhead projector to be used by presenters in industry and education. The expectations were high when the program was first introduced but today, instead of helping us be more creative in the classroom, PowerPoint is often used in ways that promote teacher-center instruction instead of student-centered learning. How many PowerPoint presentations have you sat through with slide after slide of the instructor/presenter reading screen after screen? There must be a better way of using PowerPoint!

Inappropriate use of PowerPoint can stifle meaningful discussion with the software upstaging the process, the presenter and his/her content.

PowerPoint has its strong points. It can provide some focus to lectures and lessons but we need to be careful that its use offers tangible instructional benefits. Effective use can result in ideas being presented in an organized, coherent, and possibly thought-provoking manner. But when poorly used, PowerPoint can be less of a tool and more of a crutch for presenters who choose to use it as a replacement for meaningful communication.

In this session you’ll learn more about:

• Use and abuse of PowerPoint—the journey from infatuation to zealot-like use
• The pedagogical value of PowerPoint – what works and what doesn’t
• Creative ways of thinking differently with and about PowerPoint

Presenter: Dave Yearwood

Dave Yearwood, Ph.D., CSTM, Associate Professor and chair, Department of Technology at the University of North Dakota teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in technology and electronic control systems. Yearwood has extensive experience designing and developing instructional multimedia modules as stand-alone units or as supplements for use in blended classrooms. Dave’s study and publications (including a book chapter on Podcasts) on instructional technology focuses primarily on “Electronic Pedagogy”—how faculty infuse presentation or other technologies into their practice to connect and engage students, enhance their understanding of course content, and promote dialogue that leads to a critical examination of a topic/subject under examination. His study of electronic controls is focused primarily on the creation of “smart systems” aided by computers.