Critique of Presentation Software

Before posting to this discussion, we read and watched various items relating specifically to PowerPoint presentations. These items gave us some guidelines for creating a 'good' presentation, as well as some things to avoid. By reading and watching the material related to this discussion, as well as participating in the discussion itself, I learned so much about PowerPoint!

• When using PowerPoint, it is best to keep things simple. Many people have a tendency to write everything they want to say on the actual slides. This leaves the audience wondering why they need a presenter when they could have simply been handed the slides to read themselves. This also leads to a very boring presentation as the audience can read print much faster than we can read it aloud.
• Presenters should always put themselves in the shoes of the audience, and ask "What's in it for me? Why should I listen to what you have to say?" If you cannot answer these questions or come up with a good enough response- scratch the presentation! Okay maybe not scratch the presentation, but seriously re-think it.
• Pictures can really step your presentation up a notch. If your presentation is visually appealing, your audience will be more interested in what you have to say.
• If possible, make your presentation interactive. Present some information or an idea and then have the audience do some activity. If this is not possible, at least change gears- i.e. don't stand up and talk for 20 minutes straight! Present an idea and then get audience feedback or watch a video clip.

I found the reading material and discussion to be extremely helpful and valuable. I have never created a powerpoint of my own until this semester, and I used many of the suggestions to hopefully make mine a good one. I think it all comes back to putting yourself in the shoes of your audience. Keep them in mind: What do they want to know? What would make this more interesting for them? What do I want them to know? How can I best communicate this information?

The only critique I have is that some of the discussions within the sub-topics ran together. It seemed as if the discussions on 'making the best use of powerpoint' and 'characteristics of good presentations' really talked about the same things. I feel like there could have been one or two fewer sub-topics, or the related questions could have been more more clearly defined so as not to overlap material and conversations. I did, however, really like the subtopic about 'how else can we use powerpoint?' I found this to be really interesting and enjoyed learning how others use this technology.