PowerPoint Graphics
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012Many specialists, who work in the sphere of training development, lectures and different kinds of seminars, claim that the PowerPoint graphics and the presentation itself are not important at all. What people, who came to the training session, really need are shows “on the person”, arguments, facial expressions, gestures, etc. They consider that there is no need to show information they give to their listeners on the projector.
At the same time, there is another side of the coin and some real professionals have another point of view. They see completely different picture. Well, here are their counterarguments.
The trainer is conducting his class. And he must show some regularity on the graphs. Now he is starting to draw these graphs on the blackboard with some chalk or a flip chart marker ‘ all of them by hand. Each diagram takes him a few minutes, but he has to draw several of them, not just the only one.
Regarding diagrams, the situation will be the same or even worth. Each time the trainer adds a new box to the scheme; he has to turn back to the audience, come up to the blackboard and draw this very box. When the trainer acts like this, every time he breaks the flow of his thoughts. The listeners have to look at the back of the lecturer, instead of listening to what information he is saying.
People, who have come to the training workshop, start to grumble. And it is natural reaction, because they have paid money (usually quite a pretty sum) not for observing their trainer drawing, but to get as much useful information as possible.
Lack of well and smartly pre-prepared illustrative material (of course, where it really should be) is waste of money of participants of the workshop. Successful trainers, coaches and lectors use PowerPoint graphics very actively during their seminars. Without PowerPoint graphics, they are sure that a degree of understanding among the participants of their workshops will drop very significantly. Moreover most people have unclear handwriting. This problem can spoil any perfect and informative presentation, because the trainer will have to come back to the previous information over and over again. So it is just waste of our precious time, patience and money.
Of course, PowerPoint graphics should not replace the trainer completely. It is obviously, that there are some so-called ‘coaches’, who used to hide their incompetence and inability to express their thoughts under a nice PowerPoint templates and graphic elements (which were actually made not by them, but by professional designers). But this is not an excuse to berate a useful tool, well known as PowerPoint. The problem is not the tool. The problem is in the inability to use it correctly.
Here are some great possibilities of PowerPoint – Presentation Transcript:
1. Provide information, such as diagrams, graphs, movies, photos and illustrations of text animation;
2. Custom Diagram;
3. Tables;
4. Graphics;
5. Movies – insert video clip;
6. Illustrations – inserting pictures;
7. Animation – several elements appear consistently. It is desirable to show the scheme of the algorithm or structure;
8. Distribution channels Projector Printing Burn to CD or Flash-card publication on the Internet;
9. Projector – photo speaker and projector in the classroom;
10. Printing of Image and slides;
11. Burn to CD or Flash-card – the image sticks and CD disk;
12. Publication of the Internet ‘ screenshot.