Presenting in basic black
Wednesday, June 6, 2007 at 06:23AM I'm only wearing black until they make something darker. - t-shirt slogan
Actually, it will be my presentations wearing basic black, not me.
I'm doing a lot of revising of my keynotes, breakout sessions, and workshops this summer, especially my PowerPoint slides. I have these major goals
- To update all information (this is ongoing, anyway).
- To use ever fewer words, and better, more meaningful images.
- To strive for simplicity and clarity on all slides.
Steve Jobs has taught many of us that too many colors and too many words are unnecessary - even distracting - when getting one's point across. I don't remember a single set of bullet points in Al Gore's effective presentation of An Inconvenient Proof - he made his case visually. And how!
As I revise, I am just selecting a black background, using Arial as my standard font, and making sure each image says something - either as information or affect. (I can't bring myself to give up my HPLUKs and HPTechnologyUKs.)
See what you think...
Old slide
New slide
No more agonizing over what background color or font to use. Just the focus on the message. What a concept.
Maybe I can apply this to my wardrobe as well
Reader Comments (7)
I will add this to my list of links for my next semester class...can we eventually hope that students will focus on content over formatting?!
Hi Kenn,
I've written other things about using PPT well too that you are welcome to use with your students:
Is PowerPoint Evil?
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/columnists/johnson/johnson003.shtml
SlideShow Safety
http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/safety.html
Top Ten Secrets for a Successful Workshop
http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/topten.html
Good luck!
Doug
This speaks to the importance of teaching visual literacy to our students. Graphical representations are easily manipulated for good or not. Your example above is a perfect illustration of the importance of considering the presentation and the point of it.
Love reading your posts by the way!
Yup. Always do the PowerPoint after you finish writing your speech/outline and only include photos, charts, quotes, videos etc - items that you can't easily explain, data that lend themselves to a visual presentation. If your presentation is well written, its organization will be clear to those present and the highlights will stand out. That's my approach, anyway. I rarely have more than a dozen slides in my presentations. Maybe I'm just lazy...
Inspiring. I'm currently preparing for 7 days of workshops and am updating slideshows. I need to add more pictures, you are right. It is just time consuming. I have been thinking a lot about making sure my presentations model the teaching strategies I am promoting. I like the changes you have made in your slide. Thanks for the inspiration.
Saw your post and had to send along these links
This first one,I found it through Technorati and don't remember the blog. Poor netiquette, I apologize.
http://breeze.bloomu.edu/powerpointtips
and this other one is simply a funny video but it teaches well.Fortunately I remember getting this one from Cool Cat Teacher's feed.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=
vids.individual&videoid=1529637984
Things to think about while revamping one's presentations. Ah, the errors I have made in the past while using powerpoint.
Enjoy.
Great resources, Susan.
Thanks!
Doug