Dr. Medina’s Brain Rules are fascinating. Not in the same way that Brian Greene’s eloquent description of The Elegant Universe is fascinating. No, it is much simpler than that. In fact, Brain Rules are fascinating because they are simple. While they are based on years of complicated scientific research and their implications are far reaching, Dr. Medina’s rules to survive at home, work, and school are so simple that it is fascinating that we didn’t think of them earlier.
In a similar way, it is nearly laughable to me that PowerPoint slides are still designed in a complicated and counter-intuitive manner. Due largely to the misused hierarchical organization techniques that are the foundation of Microsoft’s templates, professors, lecturers, and students continue to fill their slides with line after line of boring, bulleted text. This is
Fortunately, the steps to improving lecture slides are as straight forward and obvious as are Brain Rules. In fact, there are two design changes that can be used on any slide deck to instantly improve it’s effectiveness.
Use Less Text
Use More Images
In upcoming posts, I will explore each of these in more detail and give practical examples of how they can make an impact. For now, see how you can apply them to your lecture slides.
After a short TED Talk ‘fast’, I’ve started devouring these amazing talks again, and this 5 minute appetizer was sensational.
William Kamkwaba is a young African man who harnessed the power of wind to help feed his family and transform his small village. In this short presentation he shares his inspirational story.
What fascinates me is that William was able to give an engaging and motivational talk without having so much as a high school education. Most people who are inexperienced presenters tend to use the same crutches: default PowerPoint themes, bullet points, notes, few pictures. But not William. Notice the simplicity of his slides. Many of them are full-bleed photographs. He doesn’t use bullet points and he speaks in a natural, conversational tone. Most importantly, his message comes from the heart. Building windmills, and engineering in general, is something that he loves.
William shows that you do not need to be a trained and experienced public speaker to present well. If you are a teacher or university professor, there are a few simple things that you can do to improve your presentations or lectures.
I was asked just a week and a half ago to help two faculty members prepare some slides for a conference they would be presenting at in Montreal. I knew it would be a challenge, but after hearing a little bit more I was very interested and agreed.
Then I gathered a few more details. They were presenting a 4-hour workshop in under 2 weeks! I realized this would be a much larger project than I anticipated. But it has been a great learning experience.
Pat Esplin and Dr. Stefinee Pinnegar were great to work with. They were excited about their work and accepting of my suggestions and changes. Pat openly admitted to me upfront that she used PowerPoint as her notes. “We have too much text and too many slides! I know we’re going to have to cut something out.” I was excited to hear that because it meant we were on the same page. Even better, when I asked why they called me, they said it was because they both had seen my work at the ELL Symposium a month or so ago and wanted their presentations to look similar.
Here is a sampling of the slides before and after the makeover.
I just came across this video that I watched quite a while ago. It’s a humorous take on the very serious problem of PowerPoint misuse. I like it because, personally, I am so passionate about the need to rethink slides that I think others may be taken aback at first.
Humor helps people relax. They become less defensive and allow themselves to be a little more vulnerable. This, in turn, helps them to be more open to change.
Watch the video and see how easy it is to agree with Don.
According to Don McMillan, here is a humorous & yet insightful viewpoint on how people (teachers included) should not be using PowerPoint.
After my previous post, I thought I would quickly share how I used Flickr’s CreativeCommons section to find high quality images to use in presentations.
Did you know you can find free, high-quality images that have been licensed for re-use? I will explain how to search for them at Flickr.com and use them in your presentation.
Dr. Medina’s Brain Rules are fascinating. Not in the same way that Brian Greene’s eloquent description of The Elegant Universe is fascinating. No, it is much simpler than that. In fact, Brain Rules are fascinating because they are simple. While they are based on years of complicated scientific research and their implications are far reaching, Dr. Medina’s rules to survive at home, work, and school are so simple that it is fascinating that we didn’t think of them earlier.
