Reflection 5

Hello everyone! Well after discussing about power point as teaching aid, so here I am to list 8 rules to effective use of power point in teaching and learning.

1)    More images less text.

It is important to use image as addition in teaching aid where students will be attracted with images more than lengthy of texts. But, it is important to use relevant image that can be related with students and the topic as well as learning can be improved when narration occurs simultaneously with relevant images. Images are nice to look at, engaging, enriching and can support your story. Instead of using text as explanation, we can use image as another method to explain what the topic is about. Slides that have too much wordy, will give students less likely to learn and ‘bored’ issue will arise. If they end up having to choose between listening to your talk or reading your slides, you will become out of sync with your audience. But people can look at images and listen to your speak at the same time.

2)    Make one point per slide

Do not shrimp the information in one slide. It is okay if you have many slides, because it does not mean when you have many slides, you need to take a lot of time in teaching. You can divide one point and example in one slide. For instance, in class boundary there is upper limit boundary and lower limit boundary. We should not include both points in one slide. Students need to focus on one thing at a time and allow your students to digest it, then move with them onto the next slide.

3)    Add animation and transition but do not overload it.

Do use relevant animation and not too much animation in power point. There are so many animations where it can bounce, flying in, zoom and suddenly grow and turn. For good power point, avoid this complicated animation. Jut use simple animation which is appear. Same as well with transition. Use transition that swipe from left to right or vice versa. It won’t disturb students focus and can help teacher from press to next and next just for animation and transitions.

4)    Minimize font styles and use appropriate font size

There are plenty of font styles in Microsoft power point. But it does not mean we have to use all of them in our slides power point. It won’t make our slides interesting instead it will look messy and students will get difficulty to look at it. Use two font styles minimum in power point and it can give teacher more easier to remember which font that we use instead of using many fonts and we have to remember all those fonts. Do not take too much time on which font should we take just for power point slides. Same as well with size of font. Do not use too small of size which it is hard to read and students will start not focus on it.

5)    Engage students with activities after an explanation.

Try to create an activity after explanation of few slides. This is the method of teacher to create engagement in teaching process. Do not explain and explain and explain again only. Do put some games to make students go here and there and have communication with their peers as well. When there is an activity, students normally can learn better and this can guarantee that they understand the topic that they learn when all of them succeed answer it correctly.

6)    Use colour wisely as font and background as well.

We can include colours to make our slides look colourful and interesting. Colour scheme is important. Do not use all colours in one slide. Contrast it and it will look better. As for background, use white or black background. I do not recommend any design background or any wallpaper because sometimes, it will limit our space for words. When you have normal background, you can maximize your font size and use various of colour that can help your slides look good.

7)    Include video for better explanation and demonstration

Try to find a video that suit with topic that you are teaching. Do not use video that is not relevant or video that might not suitable for students to watch. For instance in calculation method. Pick a video that can give students understanding in term of calculation process.

8)    Clear, Consistence and Simple.

Use clear image for students level understand what the topic is about. Do not use complicated image or graphic that could give them time to think what actually you want to teach them. Be consistence such as for font styles, font colour, and background colour as well. Do not use multi kind of font styles, font colour that actually can make the power point slide look horrible and messy. Simple in term of information inside the slide. Do not put so much information in a one frame and next slide just a few words in it. You have to keep it balance with text, graphic and activities as well.