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Slides
Using slides to present information during class offers several distinct advantages, including the ability to project photographs of geological formations, human beings, animals and plants, works of art, historical artifacts, architectural drawings and structures, botanical specimens, or microorganisms. Slides can also show text, graphs, or diagrams. Slides are particularly effective for the following features (Fuhrmann and Grasha, 1983):
- showing specific examples
- enhancing students’ memory
- demonstrating detailed steps of a process
- showing spatial or visual relationships
- providing illustrations of difficult or complex theories or concepts
To achieve the desired results in using slides in teaching, instructors may find the following recommendation by Davis (1993) useful:
- Use slides to emphasize the structure of the presentation. Instructors can show a title or signature slide at the beginning of each topic presentation, use slides to reinforce the key concepts being discussed, or use a slide to demonstrate or illustrate each point being made.
- Arrange for a small light to illuminate your notes. Since the classroom lights need to be dimmed during a slide presentation for better image presentation, it is advisable to check whether the podium has a small reading light built into it. If not, consider bringing a mall flashlight.
- Make certain that the slide being projected corresponds to what you are saying at the moment. Otherwise, students can become confused and frustrated.
- Keep a slide on the screen for no more 10 to 15 seconds. Research findings indicate that when a new slide is displayed on the screen, most viewers spend no more than 15 seconds actively exploring it before starting to lose interest. Also, it is a good idea not to leave a slide continuously on display after discussing it.
- Spur students’ active viewing skills by occasionally describing the next slide before it is on display. The underlying reasoning is that by describing the slide content before its display, it allows students to mentally process and imagine what is coming. The slide will either reinforce or correct their anticipation. Such compare-and-contrast exercise tends to enhance student comprehension.
- Keep in mind that students may not be able to take notes during slide presentation. Given that the room lighting will be dimmed during the slide show and students will concentrate on viewing the slides, it is helpful for the instructor to keep these factors in mind and accommodate students’ needs by providing a handout with the highlights of the slide presentation or allocating time afterwards to present the key information of the presentation and allow students to take notes.
- Place the slides in the carousel tray and test the slide projector beforehand. It is always helpful for the instructor to lay out slides in order, put them into the projector’s carousel tray, and test them before class to ensure smooth operation in the anticipated sequence.
Some Ohio State instructors have also contributed the following tips:
- Presentation software allows for rearranging the sequence of slides and easy copying of a slide. If a slide needs to be shown more than once during a presentation, it is best to use copies rather than moving the projection sequence backwards through several slides.
- Since the room has to be darkened in order for students to see the presentation clearly, students may need small ceiling lights in order to take notes. It is helpful if lighting arrangements are worked out in advance. As mentioned above, providing handouts of the presentation is particularly beneficial for the students and is easily done with most software programs.
- The use of laser or light pointers is helpful to highlight particular features of slides. These pointers are more effective than a hand gesture or a manual pointer since they are more visible.
- Wireless remote controls allow the instructor to move about the room and check on the focus and visibility of the slides from the students’ perspective.
- Newer projectors automatically end presentations with a dark screen. Older projectors need to have a blank dark slide placed at the end in order to eliminate the blinding white projector light at the end of a slide series. Newer projectors also have less fan noise, but this feature also correlates with less air circulation and more projector heat, so that the use of the older style glass-mounted slides in new projectors should be avoided.
- Slides are an inexpensive way to add visual reference to a lecture and spice to the subject matter.
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