I'm a huge fan of PowerPoint. I create a power point for my church every week that serves to focus the congregation on key passages of scripture or specific points that the pastor is trying to illustrate. While I think I will always have a lot to learn, I have learned that in PowerPoint, less is more. The least amount of text on the screen the better, especially if you have a large audience.
Too often, in my pursuit of higher education, I have seen power points that are frightening to behold. Huge paragraphs dropped onto a slide, clashing font and background colors or placement of text in relation to the background image. The audience, whatever the age of the student, must always be remembered! Is it supposed to be boring? Can it be a little fun? Sure! Absolutely!
PowerPoint is just a tool and should always be treated as such. If it's set to loop and automatically spew material that students need to copy down, without teacher interaction, then it's a waste of time. Scrap it and rethink how to best use PowerPoint.
Make a Jeopardy power point and get them involved! Get loud and cheer for the winner!
