W4 Reading

by Ginny Holm

           As I research more I am so happy I chose to do my blogs with a little review rather than the concept map. Not that I don’t see the relevance of the concept map, it’s just that I feel like by writing my reviews in this format, I can start my Literature Review more easily. It’s as if I’ve already done an overview and just need to add more detail to each review. Here are my week 4 selections:
Reading 1 by American Psychological Association:

            PowerPoint presentations have often had a negative response from their audiences. Suggestions were made on how to deliver successful presentations that included limited text, more graphics. Presenters tended to read along with the slides which took away from their effectiveness. Written summaries were strongly discouraged as they distract from the presentation because the audience was to busy reading the hardcopy to pay attention to the presenter. It was also suggested to use enthusiasm, voice projection and body language to engage the audience.

Reading 2 by Bartsch R., & Cobern, K.:           

            Students were asked whether they preferred and learned more from PowerPoint presentations or overhead transparencies. Results suggested that studies be done to see what types of presentations benefit different types of students. At the end of the study it was found that students preferred PowerPoint to transparencies.

Reading 3 by Rogers, D.:

            It was shown through data that the majority of American students are visual dominant learners. Benefits of multimedia learning included that it mirrors the way the human mind learns. Multimedia encourages discussion and participation. It was inevitable that technology would become a norm within the classroom.

Reading 4 by Vance, V.:

            Both students and experts were asked the same questions regarding the effectiveness and overall use (both as a viewer and a designer) of PowerPoint. Both students and experts felt essentially the same in regards to narrowing slide content to main points. Students however, felt that it was often difficult to narrow the content down effectively. Students also felt limited to what they could do because of the software’s limitations in regards to visual elements. Students felt that using animation was effective especially in slide transitions, while the experts disagreed.

           

            Well, that was my reading for week 4. As I did last week, I am including a link to my AR Resource page for anyone who would like to use the resources that I found.