I’m often asked for the PowerPoint slides I use to teach my one-day Tech classes, but I never give them out. The reason is that I don’t use PowerPoint slides in my one-day Tech classes!
I always advise ham radio instructors not to use PowerPoint presentations. The reason for this is that most people don’t know how to design PowerPoint slides properly, and they tend to put people to sleep. I want the students to pay attention to me, not my slides, and conversely, I want to pay attention to the students and not just read off the slides.
A recent article in Inc. magazine supports my view. The article doesn’t really say not to use PowerPoints, but to use them more effectively. The article notes that, “Google’s employees are being trained to present in a bolder, fresher style–less text heavy and more visual.” The reason for this is:
Cognitive scientists say it’s impossible for us to multitask as well as we think we can. The brain cannot do two things at once and do them equally well. When it comes to presentation design, we can’t read text on the screen and listen to the speaker while retaining all of the information. It can’t be done.
Yikes! Think about all those slides that have a single question and all the possible answers on them. After reading this, are you sure that you want to use them?
I suppose that I could get creative and come up with slides that have pictures that illustrate various technical concepts and then talk around those. But, that would take way too much time, and I’m not a graphics designer. Besides, I’d have to have hundreds of slides to talk about everything on the Tech test. Even if I wanted to be real creative, I just don’t have the time to create that many slides.
Instead, I talk to the students, drawing on a whiteboard when I have to to make a point. The students stay engaged in the class, and if their attention does wander, I can reel them back in.