Use the basics of presentation software.
How is the proper use of presentation software relevant to education? For one, it’s a communication tool and us educators should always strive to improve our communication skills in different media. Furthermore, creating a deck of slides to explain something is a good exercise for teaching and a jumping board to creating videos.
There are all sorts of presentation software that you can choose from. Here is a list of some of the options:
- Powerpoint
- Keynote
- Google Slides
- Haiku Deck
- Prezi
There are many other choices, of course. The idea is to be comfortable with any which one of these. How comfortable? Enough to create a deck of slides in which you can integrate images and text and use appropriate animations and transitions to get your message across. What’s the message? A worthwhile exercise would be to create a simple lesson that could eventually be turned into a video as a reference for your learners.
Word of advice: Keep things simple. Too many colors, fonts, different styles of images, zany animations and busy transitions will hinder your message. It’s often tempting to show off everything you can do… The wise thing to do is to concentrate on making an elegant devliery of a concise, clear message.
Here’s what NOT to do in a very funny classic presentation by Don McMillan: