How We Learn

Thanks to a past class I took, I have become acutely aware of the negative effects a bad PowerPoint presentation can have on it’s audience – My peers and I were certainly subject to “death by PowerPoint” (Phillips, 2014). The kickers in these particular presentations were: too many (or disorganized) elements and words, strange choice of fonts, scattered presentations, and even slides with no title or indication of the content being presented. For me, this resulted in struggling to pay attention, difficulty absorbing and remembering the information being presented, and ultimately contributed to me not enjoying the class. Essentially, all of the truths that David Phillips joked about in his TEDx.

Even with this awareness, there are still elements mentioned in the above video and the 6 dos and don’ts article that I identified as doing myself.

Font: I’m such a sucker for a serif font. Garamond is my go-to, as I find it the most aesthetically pleasing, even though a sans-serif choice would be easier to read.

Slide busyness: While I am conscious of limiting words and charts to only what is necessary, I love an on-theme slide style. Usually pulling from SlidesGo, I gravitate towards fun themes that fit my presentation topic, which could result in graphics/colours overboard.

Storytelling: With a focus to fit in all the info, I have often failed to incorporate the more engaging part of presentations, like storytelling.

After identifying these trouble areas in my own slides, these are points that I
am conscious of in this week’s hands-on activity and will keep in mind going forward when putting together presentations.

References

Miller, A. (2019, June 13). 6 dos and don’ts for next-level slides, from a TED presentation expert. Ideas.Ted.Com – Explore Ideas Worth Spreading. https://ideas.ted.com/6-dos-and-donts-for-next-level-slides-from-a-ted-presentation-expert/

Phillips, David JP. (2014, April 14). How to avoid death by PowerPoint [Mp4]. TED Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwpi1Lm6dFo