Guest Posted March 23, 2007 Posted March 23, 2007 Hi everyone, Can anyone help me with my assignment please? I have to prepare a powerpoint presentation identifying barriers to effective learning within the setting (foundation unit) I also have to relate major theories of cognitive and intellectual development and consider the impact of motivation on children's learning. Can anyone point me in the right direction. I have never done a power point before, help!!!!!!!!!!
AnonyMouse_79 Posted March 23, 2007 Posted March 23, 2007 Hi Swoolhouse and welcome. You need to work out the content that you wish to present first! Powerpoints can be simple or more complicated although they are not something I make often so perhaps someone else will be along to help soon.
Guest Posted March 23, 2007 Posted March 23, 2007 The Powerpoint help pages are very good. What I would do is if you are a complete novice maybe try using post-it notes first to do a basic plan of how many slides/basic content as this works well. The easiest thing is to make individual slides by clicking on 'new slide' icon/prompt and then if you go to 'view slide show' you can click on each slide to see your whole presentation. If you get more confident you can add sound effects, transition effects and so on...it's all about having a 'play'... hope this helps start you off!
Guest Posted March 24, 2007 Posted March 24, 2007 Agree with Kermit, it's about 'active learning' on your part. The more you play with it the easier it will be. I personally always start with 'blank' pages but you can use templates within the programme which gives different layouts for your page. Mundia has put some powerpoint presentations in the resource library ( and Kermit1 too) Have a look at these for ideas of presentation. http://www.foundation-stage.info/forums/in...amp;showfile=64 Why not have a practice run on something simple like 7 pages showing the days of the week. Practice text and picture presentations. Then worry about actual content once you are familiar with how powerpoint works. I am doing a PP presentation for my degree but not until I return from holiday, so won't finish it until around the 12th April. If this is not too late then I will attach it for you when done. Peggy
AnonyMouse_4544 Posted March 24, 2007 Posted March 24, 2007 Just want to say hi and welcome and echo the good advice already offered.
Guest Posted March 24, 2007 Posted March 24, 2007 They do become easier as you go along but I think they are often difficult to get right and can be quite time consuming - always easier to write loads but taking it down to bare bones minimum is I always think quite hard. Whilst it is tempting to initially put up some outlines under ppt I think you really need to know where you are taking the argument/presentation - so just type up all that you have found on the subject in word very roughly and then think about what you think are the most important points for presenting, try highlighting all those things that jump out at you - I always find that when I am reading I get the WOW factor either I agree with that or WOW thats really interesting, or WOW I never knew that or is that just me when I reasearch!!! If you have a marking cirteria then look to see how much the actual ppt presentation has - mine normally only carries about 10% of the mark so its not worth concentrating too much on being too flashy when perhaps the content and critical analysis carries 50% or something - I think you need to know where your focus is for this assignment, the ppt may jsut be secondary learning. Other things to remember when presenting ppt's - will you be presenting it on an overhead projector or will you be presenting it in ppt form by hand outs. In the case of overheads I think if stick to a light background with a blue/black script - its often easier on the eye - font should be fairly large You do not need to do anything too flashy although sometimes if you feel you have a very strong point to make you may want to perhaps have it "flying in" or "blinking" so that people are focussed on that particular bullet point. Remember to just highlight main points for discussion, You can import pictures quite easily which sometimes help. Think of it as a story too - it should have a beginning a middle and an end, sometimes good to end up with a good reflective quote. I think the general rule is that you should have no more than than about 10 slides. From the ppts I have given I have had to deliver them within 10 minutes. Dont try to run any longer than 10 max 15 minutes as people switch off - have they given you a time limit? This means you have about a minute for each slide. During conversational talk we talk about 150-200 words per minute and this comes down to about 100 for presentations so what this means is that you could have up to 1000 words to get across in 10 minutes which when you think about it is quite long so break the ppt up with slides with short concise statements which need little expanding that lead you into areas that you need to expand if that makes sense. If you are good with tables and diagrams perhaps draw up a table highlighting the barriers using a spidagram or something similar in word and then you can import it onto the slide - I find diagrams are a really useful tool as it helps keep me in line with what I need to say as they act as a prompt and you can use them to keep you on course with what you are saying. Or perhaps a spidagram slide outling the various theories.that you can use as prompts for discussion. Its very easy expecially in my case to start waffling especially when you are nervous and this is one way that I have learnt helps to keep on target. Hope this helps - the actual software is quite simple to use and it looks as though from what you have said that you need to concentrate on the content more than putting in all the flashy bits and worrying about timings etc but check the marking criteria Hope this helps - good luck Nikki
Guest Posted March 25, 2007 Posted March 25, 2007 (edited) Hi everyone, Thankyou all for all your good advice. I have got till the end of may to do this so I will probably spend all of the Easter hols working on it!!!! Thanks again you have given me some good ideas on which way to go, I was clueless before. I am still nervous though!!!!!! Edited March 25, 2007 by Guest
AnonyMouse_73 Posted March 25, 2007 Posted March 25, 2007 just a couple of points to add in terms of presentation which I picked up on my last MEd module. First research shows that light text on a dark background works better for most people (it certainly does for me) Use a font that is designed for reading on the screen not one (like times new Roman for example) that is designed for reading in print. I believe Tahoma and Verdana are the ones that come to mind although there are others. Keep it simple. Think what you want to say if you giving a talk, then worry about the technology afterwards, don't get hung up with the ppt as you can experiment with that once you know roughly want you want to say. If you have a time limit, rehearse and rehearse, and then rehears again just to be sure. Be aware that 10 minutes for example is a very short amount of time so there is no time for waffle. Keep your ppt itself to the key points (which can be bulleted) and talk around them. You seem to have a lot to cover as each of the things you mention could fill a couple of hours easily. Do you need to bring in all of those things or choose one? Im sure you have enough people here who can read your ppt for you when you're done if you would like us to.
Recommended Posts