"Educational Death By PowerPoint"

There was an interesting little article that came out this week in the Arizona Daily Star (actually, I read it first in my local Modesto Bee.... but then tracked it down to its source online)

The article itself is titled "If Johnny can't communicate... blame PowerPoint"

Here are some quotes that might relate to my "flipping the classroom" project:

(a) "The trainer bemoaned the skull-numbing effect that an endless stream of bullet points and images has on a listener."

(b) "Then he told us that the newest trend in high-level salesmanship is to perform important presentations without electronic aids. Apparently, top sales professionals have started learning to sketch so they can hand-illustrate their most important concepts on whiteboards in front of clients.
Such an effort demonstrates two things, the trainer said. 'First, it shows the customer that you know your stuff, that you're not just regurgitating strings of facts because you need to have slides and fill them. And second, it shows your audience that you are tailoring how you impart information in a way that is relevant to them in the moment.' "

(c) "Well, that's how it used to be a long time ago when teachers were masters of their subject areas and they shared their wisdom by lecturing and maybe making a few notes on a chalkboard. Back when students were - gasp! - expected to listen and take notes."

(d) "I sat in classroom after classroom - in both urban and rural, affluent and low-income schools - where entire class periods consisted of a dimmed room, a clip-art heavy 80-slide PowerPoint deck, reams of printouts of the same presentation (the "notes") and the monotonous drone of an instructor faithfully reciting bullet points."

(e) "Our biggest concern about integrating technology into schools should be that even as we provide students with mastery of the standard tools of business - whether it be slide presentations, email or social media - we risk forgetting a vital piece of the educational puzzle: the ability to communicate for understanding."

These are all interesting points for me to keep in mind... which is why I have stuck them here in my blog so that I can come back and reference them in the future.

First, I am always trying to figure out how these thing relate to MY OWN DELIVERY OF CONTENT to my students... HOW to best TEACH my students. Second, there is that "other level".... of... HOW to get STUDENTS to LEARN these skills.... "the ability to communicate for understanding."

I'll save that second part for somewhere else... because THIS blog is more about "flipping the classroom" than anything else... So... How can I use the information in this article to help with my "online lectures"....

I agree with the author... I never really liked PowerPoint as a form of information-delivery. Mostly because it was not "fluid" enough. In my classroom I rather use InterWrite software because it is much easier to just "step out" of the presentation to go off on a tangent, if need be.... Or, more importantly, to step IN to the presentation.... zoom in, start writing an impromptu diagram that will focus on some key idea... Every class period seems to have its own pacing... Some classes have questions and time to go into details... Other classes (example: right after lunch!) I am just happy to get through the basic lesson in one piece!

The comment in (c) is worth tackling.... "Back when students were - gasp! - expected to listen and take notes." - Well.... Things change. Just because that was the way it WAS done.... doesn't mean that is the best way to do it. Obviously students are expected to LISTEN. (Although, it is not that simple... during the information age the use of video games and smartphones has had an impact on people's ability to just SIT and LISTEN. As teachers we HAVE TO FACE THAT FACT.) The idea that students are expected to TAKE NOTES.... That has never proven to be an effective/efficient means of learning. The act of COPYING STUFF off of the board only has a minimal imprint on the student's brain compared with the TIME it takes to actually copy the information. Also: students do not often have the best handwriting (I was one of those.... sloppy handwriting). Even when students copy stuff off of the board "all notes are not created equal!".  I have been convinced by my wife (a fellow educator) that it MIGHT be worthwhile to just GIVE the student's their notes, printed neatly, and organized nicely.... and then just JUMP RIGHT IN TO TEACHING them about the notes. So... that is what I am beginning to do... This year.... I am printing up notes.... and just leaving areas BLANK for students to fill in information/diagrams/examples. Again: it is a question of the TIME involved. I would rather spend that time in other ways in my classroom. I want kids to get down to processing information and working with it.

I found the comment (b) to be particularly interesting... about "top professionals learning to sketch so they can hand-illustrate their most important concepts".... If you watch any of my "video lectures" you will notice immediately that everything on the screen is hand-drawn by me. The main reason I did this was because of COPYWRIGHT issues.... It might be ok for a teacher to "borrow" images and put them in their own classroom presentations... (who's going to know?).. but that would simply NOT BE OK to do online in a video that is accessible by the public. I knew immediately that I would have to produce my own work. As a side benefit, according to this article, the hand-written work might add a certain quality to the presentations that not only might help hold the attention of the audience, but possibly demonstrate that the presenter does know what he is talking about.

The idea that lectures should be "tailored" for that particular moment.... Well.... that is hard to do with an online video. However, teaching lessons DURING CLASS TIME is still fraught with these challenges because, alas, teachers do not often have an audience of ONE student..... In California we often have 30 or 35 students in the classroom. It is basically impossible to "taylor" a lecture to each-and-every-student under those conditions...

So, my online solution may not be perfect. But it does have its own strengths. My plan for each lecture is to have a series (5 to 7) of short (1 to 5 minute) videos in which each student sits, wearing headphones, in front of a computer, watching the videos at their own pace.... sometimes re-watching.... interrupted by "check for understanding/knowledge" questions.... This will help personalize the experience for each of them, in a way. One thing I have tried to do is to cram a lot of information into those little, 2-minute, mini-lectures.... The voice-over information is going at a fairly quick pace.... and their are usually a couple different information streams being DRAWN on the screen at the same time.. And, let's not forget the notes themselves, which the student has printed out and is holding in front of them. A student can watch a video clip a second time and get something NEW out of it, by paying attention to some of the details. Some students will get the main ideas by only watching a single time... other students may need to watch some of the videos a second or third time.

These "video lectures" are not intended to be THE main format for teaching of my students.... I think the SAME "video lecture" will be useful for various times in a student's learning curve throughout the year: First, for initial learning, to give them an IDEA of what the vocabulary and main thoughts are going to be (followed by days of relevant practice in the classroom). Second, a couple weeks later as a review prior to taking the Unit quiz. Third, as a review months later to clarify and focus the ideas that the student has already learned but is now in a better position to absorb the details of.

Of course.... What do I know!?  I have not actually DONE any of this yet!  I have spent many many hours working on the MECHANICS/technology.... but I have yet to have a single student USE these online lectures.... I can't hope but think that my classes can only be made BETTER by having these video lectures available to the students..... What the effect on my classroom teaching will be is yet-to-be-determined.