CHAPTER 1 -"Tweaking presentations"

In this first chapter, “Tweaking presentations”, Dr. Burmark gives very interesting tips about how to correct our PowerPoint presentations. Simple and boring PowerPoint presentation slides can be changed by adding color, reducing the amount of unnecessary words, using the right type of fonts, and using photographs to make it more attractive.
Dr. Burmark gives interesting facts and information about the importance of using color in PowerPoint slides. For example, there was a study at the University Of Minnesota School Of Management that says there is a dramatic improvement when replacing black and white slides to colored ones. By doing it so, it can increase willingness to read, boost motivation, boost participation, enhance learning and it can also help in advertising. She explains the reasons we need to decrease word count in a slide by making it no more than 40 words per slide. Dr. Burmark says it is very important to use the right type of font with specific type of content. She gives examples and tips on how to create slides with clean and legible font. She believes photographs (not clipart) should be used as illustrations and attention grabbers.
I really enjoyed reading chapter one because it is simple and to the point. Dr. Burmark gives very interesting tips and information in her activities, specially the one with colors. Since I’m an Art teacher all of this neat information about colors was very fascinating to me. I like the activities she assigns, especially Activity 1.5 where we have to analyze Claude Monet’s impressionist paintings. Using the that is attached to the book helped me to understand better her points in making a better PowerPoint. I guess by looking at the colored pictures from the proofs the fact that it does help to understand more about the impact color makes than just looking at the black and white illustrations in her book. However, I do disagree where she recommends not using clipart, because according to her, clipart does not grab it gags. As a teacher I do use PowerPoint presentations as lessons and make them on my own. Since I am a very visual person, I do use a lot of clipart and photographs as illustrations. I can say my students enjoy it and learn because it shows they participate in asking and answering questions while giving presentations. They do laugh at the clipart I use (sometimes animated) but I think they need it to make learning interesting, fun and entertaining.

Burmark, L. (2011). They snooze you lose: The educator’s guide to successful presentations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.