Traditional teaching consists of lectures conducted by a teacher who explains the subject matter leaning on a blackboard. The role of the students is mostly related to listening and taking notes of the lecture to learn from those. Nowadays, traditional models have been enriched and modified by the aid of recent technologies. PowerPoint, a widely used software in conferences and professional meetings, has become a common tool in the modern teaching, to the point of replacing the blackboard in most of the classrooms. PowerPoint offers a more interactive and visually appealing technique for the students and it provides with a number of resources such as: audio and video clips, diagrams, graphs, photographs, among others. However, its potential is often missed and its use is limited to a simple and comfortable mode to present the information to the students (Cornwell, 2014; Jones, 2003). This results in disagreements regarding the usefulness of using PowerPoint in Higher Education (Szabo and Hastings, 2000; Lowry, 2003).
Teaching through presentations is a novel incorporation in the context of mathematical teaching. The picture of a teacher writing equations on the blackboard is still present in the mathematics community. However, the apparent need of modernizing the teaching sessions has led many teachers to adopt the type of PowerPoint lecturing without reflecting on its effective use.
Ultimately, an increase in the use of PowerPoint in teaching has been coincidental to a decreasing attendance of students to lectures. This apparent correlation has been interpreted as a consequence of the availability of PowerPoint slides as a complete source of the subject, making students feel the futility of attending the lecture. However, Jones (2003) points out that a similar decrease of student attendance has occurred in non-PowerPoint lectures, and arguments that the real causes might be related to other factors e.g., the quality of the lecture. Although students believe they learn more with PowerPoint lectures and hence they prefer them (Cornwell, 2014), there does not seem to be an improvement in course performance when comparing the effect of the traditional lecture and the PowerPoint lecture (Hill, 2012). Lectures are usually less effective than active learning, independently from the use of PowerPoint (Cornwell, 2014). Nevertheless, a clever use of the PowerPoint tool can substantially help in creating a more dynamic lecture. Based on the study carried out by Jones (2003), the following listed factors are the most important when preparing a lecture with PowerPoint:
- Avoid the inclusion of all the lecture contents in detail, so the students do not feel that they not need to attend the lecture or that they can adopt a passive role during the lecture.
- Provide main outlines (headings and subheadings) together with important graphics, images, equations or diagrams, to encourage the student to be active note-taking.
- Prevent the fast tendency to deliver the PowerPoint to facilitate/help the students to follow the lecture.
To conclude, the use of PowerPoint may increase student´s motivation by using modern visual aid to enhance comprehension and learning. PowerPoint is an excellent and powerful toolto promote creativeness in teaching for Higher Education and engaging with the students.
Useful guides for the preparation of a PowerPoint lecture:
- Teaching with PowerPoint (Northern Illinois University, Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center):
http://www.niu.edu/facdev/_pdf/guide/technology/teaching_with_powerpoint.pdf
- Effective use of PowerPoint in a lecture environment (Christopher Reeves):
https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/static/5007/arpdf/academy/redguide37.pdf
References:
- Cornwell, L. (2014). What Is the Impact of PowerPoint Lectures on Learning? A Brief Review of Research.
- Hill, A., Arford, T., Lubitow, A., and Smollin, L. (2012). “’I’m Ambivalent about It: The Dilemmas of PowerPoint.” Teaching Sociology, 40(3), 242-256.
- Jones, A. M. (2003). The use and abuse of PowerPoint in Teaching and Learning in the Life Sciences: A Personal Overview. Bioscience Education, 2(1), 1-13.
- Lowry, R. (2003) Through the bottleneck. ILTHE Newsletter 11, Summer 2003, 9.
- Szabo, A. & Hastings, N. (2000) Using IT in the undergraduate classroom: should we replace the blackboard with PowerPoint? Computers and Education, 35, 175 – 187.
Maryele1
I certainly agree that lengthy PowerPoints can be rather pointless, and encourage a passive approach among students. Students do find them valuable though: in my discipline of History, it is very difficult to follow key dates and key personalities without some sort of reminder of these alongside the words of the lecturer, and when that week's lecturer had elected not to use PowerPoint, my students often complained about this in our seminars.
I read this article several years ago, written by an academic named Rebecca Schuman about the abuse of PowerPoint in higher education - the entire article ironically takes the form of a Google Slides slide show. Schuman advocates making PowerPoint slides completely incomprehensible by themselves. That way, the slides become a starting point for a conversation, rather than a replacement for the words of the lecturer.
- Zosia Edwards
I would agree to some extent. In general I would say that using powerpoint is a useful addition to the learning experience but I have seen it used well and I have seen it terribly. The most engaging lectures I have had used powerpoint with very minimal handouts. The handouts would have the beginnings of a diagram or graph, the powerpoint slides would have the rest of the diagram but no explanation. This meant that we had to pay attention to the slides to complete the diagrams and process the data in a way that we would not if the completed graph was given to us. We also had to listen to complete any annotations as these would be explained verbally by the lecturer. This method really complemented the style and personality of the lecturer and seems to include the features you indicate from Jones (2003). However this style did divide opinion. Most students appreciated the requirement to actively participate in the lecture as it was clear that it was an effective method. But some students seemed to resent the fact that they would have to actually attend the lectures in order to complete the course. Baldwin (1980) indicates a correlation between lecture attendance and the perceived value or benefit of attendance. Powerpoint can be used well, increase the perceived value of the lecture and increase attendance or participation, or powerpoint can be used badly, reducing the perceived value and reducing student participation.
Kate Orman (Biological sciences)
The use of PowerPoint during lectures has been a subject of thought and self-reflection for me and I really like the summary of information provided in this post. Blaming the slides for reduced lecture attendance sometimes reminds me of the recent tendency to blame mobiles for the alienation of commuters. That is until a pictures emerges showing commuters some decades ago, lost in their newspapers. I can see how having all the information available may reduce students' incentive to participate in the lecture, as they are no longer required to pay attention and take notes. However, I can remember how having to take notes could sometimes distract from paying attention while trying to capture the information accurately and being left behind. I am inclined to believe that it would be more productive to seek explanations and solutions in other barriers to learning, helpfully presented by Illeris (2009). Until more information on the use of technology in education becomes available at least :)
Illeris (2009). A comprehensive understanding of human learning in Contemporary theories of learning. New York, USA, Routledge
Particularly for Maths I prefer blackboards, because the lecturer is forced to write the equations, which slows the pace so that you have time to understand every step in the proof. As in Maths it is important to pay attention to every step of the lecture, or you will fall behind, I think this is helpful. With Powerpoints I think it is easier for the lecturer to go too fast (I am guilty of this in my own teaching), although I agree they can be more visually engaging. I also feel that seeing the lecturer write out a proof draws students in, and makes them feel more involved, than when they see equations appear on a Powerpoint. However, I agree Powerpoints can be useful when not going into as much depth in the Maths, because they are clear, and quicker than blackboards. It is are useful to be able to display figures and video clips.