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Greetings!
The Internet has been buzzing this past week
over PowerPoint.
Research from the University of North
South Wales revealed that the human brain
retains more information if it is presented
either in verbal or written form, but not
both at the same time, such as reading text
from the screen to the audience as many
PowerPoint presenters do. UNSW education
professor John Sweller calls it “cognitive
load theory,” and says PowerPoint
presentations are “a disaster” and “should be
ditched.”
It is true that there are many horrible
PowerPoint presentations given each day! Just
because others don't know how to use it well,
doesn't mean that you can't be the one to
shine by using it to enliven your
presentations! This month's Ezine is designed
to help you do just that.
To improve presentations everywhere,
use the link at the bottom to forward this
issue to a friend.
Here's to your success! Dana Bristol-Smith
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Take Your Power Back from PowerPoint!
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PowerPoint can be an effective tool – as long
as YOU stay in control. In a recent High
Impact Presentations workshop, I encouraged
my participants to try something new. I
asked them to start their presentations
without the slide on the screen – with a
black screen (did I just hear you gasp?).
They started their presentations by BEING WITH
their audience first. Their introduction
might have been a story, a current, relevant
event or a situation they described. As they
moved into the “meat” of their presentation –
they brought up their first slide on the
screen. They used the slide to illustrate
what they were speaking about.
But here’s the big thing: The slide was in
the background and the presenter was the in
the foreground as the expert. In movie lingo,
the speaker was the main (feature)
attraction.
Too often, it’s the other way around and that
leads to dull and boring slide shows rather
than enlivening and interesting
presentations.
Here’s how you can use that technique in your
next presentation.
Continued
here
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PowerPoint Tip - Go Visual!
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Bring your PowerPoint slides to life with
graphics, photos, and video. For some GREAT
ideas in how to think visually, visit this
website for a Periodic Table of
visualizations. It is awesome! Thank you to
Dave Paradi for sharing this great site in
his Blog.
Visual Literacy Website
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What if Abraham Lincoln used PowerPoint for the Gettysburg Address?
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Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google
had some fun with this question and actually
used the Auto Content Wizard to
design the Gettysburg Address in PowerPoint.
In Norvig’s words, it might have sounded
something like this:
Announcer: And now please welcome
President Abraham Lincoln.
President Lincoln: Good morning. Just
a second while I get this connection to work.
Do I press this button here? Function-F7? No,
that's not right. Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to
reboot. Hold on a minute. Um, my name is Abe
Lincoln and I'm your president. While we're
waiting, I want to thank Judge David Wills,
chairman of the committee supervising the
dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery. It's
great to be here, Dave, and you and the
committee are doing a great job. Gee,
sometimes this new technology does have
glitches, but we couldn't live without it,
could we? Oh - is it ready? OK, here we go:
To see a truly awful representation of one of
our nation’s most famous speeches, visit
Norvig's website Gettysburg
Address in PowerPoint.
To find out why Norvig tackled this project
and have a laugh
visit The
Making of the Gettysburgh PowerPoint
Presentation.
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