Wednesday, March 09, 2016

Try Not To Be Boring

Every morning while I eat breakfast I view a few things on the Internet. Dilbert is one of them. Sometimes I find things that apply to teachers as well as managers.

Try Not Being Boring - Dilbert by Scott Adams

I thought I was doing so well as I created my wonderful PowerPoints to explain various programming topics. I mean they really looked good. Students didn’t seem to be getting things though.  I finally decided to try using more worked examples – doubling up on the worked examples rather than talking at students. This seems to be working better.

I still have the PowerPoint decks and the recorded talks I made with some of them. I think they have value for review and as references. But I’m not talking to the slides as much as I used to. I’m just not good at making “fifty slides of pure excitement.”

1 comment:

Garth said...

When I read this the first time I want "Huh". I have since greatly reduced my use of PowerPoint. Microsoft might not agree but my own independent study (called seat-of-the-pants) seems to confirm her observations.

https://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/why-your-students-forgot-everything-on-your-powerpoint-slides-mary-jo-madda-2/