Powerpoint Pointers

This first week of classes was anything but "syllabus week" for me! In the majority of my five classes, we jumped right in to class material and began looking ahead to larger projects that will be coming our way as the semester progresses. Interestingly, there will be a pretty major group project in each of my classes. Not only does this mean I'm likely to have an interesting and challenging semester, it also means that I'm probably in for watching a lot of Powerpoint presentations as other groups present their work!

When they first came out, as one of my professors pointed out, Powerpoints were a great new way of structuring a lecture or presentation. Nowadays, it feels as though the program has become the go-to medium for most presentations in the classroom. This is fine when the Powerpoints are constructed and used appropriately, but I have found that many people have used them incorrectly and overwhelmingly boring presentations have resulted. A blog called The Viral Garden recently offered a list of great tips for those who are putting together Powerpoint presentations and want to use them effectively. I suggest you check out their advice if you, like me, will be putting together a lot of presentations this year! I'm sure your teachers and peers will appreciate a more engaging presentation.