presentations – dalebasler.com

Three Things I Wish Google Would Copy From PowerPoint

February 29, 2024February 29, 2024 Dale

As a longtime user of both Google Slides and PowerPoint, there are some key features in Microsoft’s presentation software that I really wish Google would add to Slides.

Wipe Animation – This is the one I miss the most! I used this animation extensively when I taught physics because vectors, diagrams, and graphs are a core part of the subject. With the wipe animation in PowerPoint, you can make objects look like they are being drawn on the screen. This creates a fluid, natural motion like you’re illustrating on a whiteboard. It allowed me to break down concepts step-by-step, revealing each part of a diagram or graph sequentially.

PowerPoint: Use the **WIPE** animation to draw objects on the screen

Add Sections – Another useful feature in PowerPoint that I wish Google Slides would adopt is the ability to divide a presentation into sections. PowerPoint allows you to break up your slides into logical subgroups by using the Add Section option. This provides a clear visual outline of your presentation flow. You can collapse and expand the sections to get a high-level view or quickly navigate to a particular part. The section feature helps organize complex presentations with many slides. Without sections, long presentations in Google Slides just turn into an endless grid of thumbnails that are difficult to manage. The section functionality is a real time-saver and keeps things tidy even in lengthy presentations.

Timing Controls – PowerPoint also provides superior timing controls over Google Slides. In Slides, you can only adjust the animation and transition duration using a slider, making it hard to precisely review or enter times.

Why does Google Slides hide the duration?

PowerPoint lets you directly type in a custom duration and even add delays before animations and transitions begin. Another limitation in Slides is the maximum 5 second duration for animations and transitions. PowerPoint has no limits – you can add any duration. This is helpful for creating countdown timers that can run for minutes while your audience is completing an activity. Google Slides unfortunately lags behind in enabling such fine-tuned timing editing and flexibility.

PowerPoint: Easily review and enter times

While Google Slides offers simplicity, I think its shortcomings have limited our presentations. Without the robust controls and capabilities present in PowerPoint, more and more Google Slides presentations are becoming static pages that deprive presenters the opportunity to ease an audience toward an idea or to tell a story. I hope Google Slides adds more presentation-centric features soon. If it doesn’t, our Google Slides are slipping closer and closer to resembling PDFs.

My experience with an interactive board

January 14, 2008January 14, 2008 Dale

At the start of the school year I was fortunate to have an Interwrite Board installed in my classroom. The Interwrite Board is an interactive board (IB) that works in concert with an LCD projector. Another well known IB product line is produced by Smart Technologies. Both allow teachers to control a computer by marking on the board. My board uses a pen that doesn’t leave behind real ink but it can allow me to draw, move objects around and control any software on my computer.

Here’s how I’ve been using it so far:

demonstrating software: Teaching science demands the use of software for data collection, data analysis, graphical analysis, and video analysis. The IB has helped students become familiar with new software. They seem to pick up new software much faster once they had a chance to manipulate and control it with the interactive pen.
practice problems go digital: My students in physics often work in small groups to solve and then present assigned problems using a white board and dry erase markers. This process has always had tremendous pedagogical advantages. Now the process has improved even more because I take pictures of their white boards and project them onto the IB for discussion.
There are several advantages to this process:
- the white board is bigger
- the work is saved for continuing the next day, an absent student or review at a later date
- while the students can annotate their white board in front of class with the interactive pens, I can interact from the back with mine (I also have the AirLiner from Smart Technologies)
Create Podcasts: Work done on the IB can be recorded (audio and video) and posted to the web for further discussion and review. You can see examples of my videos here.

Here are a few reasons I like using the interactive board:

I can look at my audience when using it. In the past, when I needed to demonstrate software for example, I was forced to look at the computer screen. I wasn’t looking where the students were looking. There is a disconnect here that is similar to the one when you are staring at the top of an overhead projector while your students eyes are focused behind you. Now all of us are looking at the same thing.
The ability to save, go back and start over. I save so much time with the IB because I don’t have to erase things. If problem seven brings up new questions in problem one I can pull up question one in a flash. New questions come up? Click new page and off we go. It’s like an endless chalkboard that doesn’t show the faint, half-erased work of the hours before. I still have a chalkboard- over twice the area of the IB. I use this for things I want to keep up long-term, quick calculations for students in lab, and of course the “please see me” notes.
It is a better drawer than me. I use the lines, shapes, clip art and endless colors to drive home our discussions. When I teach vectors, the colored arrows can be copied and slid around to explain things like vector addition. This is a huge time saver and something I never could have done with chalk.
Students are eager to use the interactive board and feel privileged to have it in their classroom. I know that these sensations will probably subside as the technology becomes more commonplace but right now I have students asking to use it. Having students proud of what their school is providing is a good thing.

Google’s new presentation app has room to grow

September 18, 2007September 18, 2007 Dale 1 Comment

Google has just released a presentation program that runs right in your browser. Now you can create and share presentations online. With the addition of presentations, many are claiming that Google Docs now has three tools (they also have a word processor and a spreadsheet program) that can rival Microsoft Office.

Rival? Not really. While I like the ability to work together with people all across the Internet to create a slideshow, I’m disappointed with Google’s new tool. After uploading a PowerPoint file, I saw that its functions are quite basic. Google’s PowerPoint ‘wanna-be’ has a long way to go.

He’s what I think Google’s presentation software needs:

Animations and transitions: If Google really wants to stand out, they need to add a little motion. (The folks at SlideRocket are doing exciting things in this area.)
An easy way to embed slideshows: The whole point of putting a presentation online is to share it with a wider audience. Where is the button that shows me how to embed my presentation into my website?
Sound would be nice: Let’s face it, without the presenter many slideshows are quite boring. Google needs to add audio so the presentations can at least have narrations.

For now, Google’s presentation program is just a toy. It’s worth looking at and it might be fun to dream about what it will someday become, but I don’t see anything useful here. If you want your presentations online, I suggest you create them offline with PowerPoint or Keynote (or OpenOffice for free) and then share your work at SlideShare.

Research doesn’t favor notes via PowerPoint

April 11, 2007April 11, 2007 Dale

Recent research on cognitive load theory suggests that PowerPoint is doing more damage than good.

From the full story in The Sydney Morning Herald:

It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time.

Professor John Sweller states:

It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.

If you wish to use a PowerPoint presentation, consider using it as a visual aid. PowerPoint should not be used to display only text. If you have notes to present [top slide] consider using images to emphasize your points [bottom slide].

When thinking about this topic, I’m reminded of this comment one of my colleagues wrote a few months back: “I love PowerPoint, but for me it’s used to enhance my instruction, not remind me of what I need to say.”

Her statement took me back to a book I read several years ago by Clifford Stoll title, “High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don’t Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian.”

Here is an excerpt from the chapter title The Plague of PowerPoint:

Want to make a splash at your next public talk? Know your material so well that you can speak off the cuff, without computer, laser pointer, or video projector. Scribble your important points on a chalkboard and emphasize them with your voice. Face your audience, not that computer monitor. Throw out that tired clipart and the cliches about the explosion of technology, the challenge of the future, and the crisis in education. Let me hear your voice, not a pre-programmed sound effect. Show me your ideas, not someone else’s template.

Stoll has a point. When was the last time you walked away from a lecture and said, “wow, that lady’s PowerPoint was awesome!” You can read the entire chapter here.

The bottom-line is that PowerPoint is a great tool when used correctly. When used poorly it can be boring or distracting.

But you don’t have to delete all your shows. Here is a tutorial to help you improve your presentations.