December 2001
Using Technology to Enhance Lectures
For years, you've taught using the blackboard and your students have taken notes. Why change? Sure you can create a PowerPoint presentation that you can reuse, but does it help your students? Is it worth the extra time and energy required?
The very process of developing PowerPoint lectures requires you to organize your materials and presentation. Plus you are able to combine text and images into one environment. Some of the ways you can use PowerPoint in lectures include:
·Organizational tool - put the main points of a lecture in a PowerPoint to replace writing the same points on the board. Don't include too much text and use key words/bullets so that students can use the key phrases to structure their notes.
·Image-enhanced presentation - add visuals that illustrate concepts and provide animation when needed. Often a chart is useful in conveying large amounts of information. Many of us don't have great drawing skill on the chalkboard. With PowerPoint, you can use clip art, photographs, Excel graphs, even video. The visual lectures can have more impact and provide clarity.
· Concept development - you can "build" or add components to a slide, visually showing the development of an idea at precisely the appropriate moment in the lecture.
· Interactive talk - questions can be set with the answer delayed from appearing on screen through the Preset Animation feature. There's great instructional value in pausing long enough for students to think and reflect before presenting the answer.
One potential problem is that students will spend most of the time in class taking notes from the presentation rather than listening. By using bullet points on the slide, it may help you slow down and help students focus on what is most salient. Bear in mind, that even successful students may fail to record many ideas communicated by the lecturer. Our minds are limited by capacity and the very process of note taking can use up too much mental space. As a faculty member, you should encourage students to take fewer notes and to listen carefully to new, difficult material. Students can fill in notes after class. Also be sure to "chunk" content so that students can absorb what you are saying.
The FIC's mission is to support innovative instruction. We invite you to share you PowerPoint success tips with us or visit the FIC Web site or studio to explore handouts such as these...
| Classroom Assessment Techniques.PDF | Enhancing Lectures.PDF |
Do you want to get involved in online learning?
The break between semesters is a great time to investigate how you can enhance your course with technology. The Faculty Innovation Center (FIC) provides an easy way to get started - UTwired, an online course tool powered by Prometheus. Whether you're just getting started with online course enhancement or expanding your use of technology-mediated instruction, we can help. The FIC offers training workshops and individual consultation to support your unique needs.
Visit http://www.fic.engr.utexas.edu/UTWired.html for a complete list of UTwired training workshops. Or contact mary.crawford@mail.utexas.edu to inquire about individual consultation.