PowerPoint-Induced Trends in Higher Ed | The Better Presenter

If you want to be a well respected blogger with a contingent of loyal followers, you need to be entertaining and relevant, and you also need to back up your posts with legitimate data and references. Taking my own advice, and not to be outdone by my peers, I decided to do some serious research for this post. I wanted to find proof that PowerPoint is the driving force behind a number of trends in higher education? trends that adversely affects a student?s ability to learn. So naturally, I bought a time machine on eBay, and traveled 50 years into the future to witness the results of these trends with my own eyes. What I saw was frightening, yet predictable. Here is an excerpt from my time travel journal:

March 6, 2063 ~ Textbooks are officially dead, and word on the street is that they were killed off systematically and without mercy by well-placed PowerPoint bullet points and stylish clip art. Student are building bonfires Ray Bradbury style. White board markers are outlawed in universities across the nation, and instructors are required to use government-issued PowerPoint templates and laser pointers when lecturing. I have been hiding out with a small contingent of outcasts who call themselves Citizens Against PowerPoint Abuse (CAPPA for short). They organize regular demonstrations against PowerPoint and advocate for a return to the good ?ol days of group projects and learning games. In their eyes, the world is coming to end, and on the day of reckoning, it will look like this:

But seriously folks [insert laugh track], it is 2013 and PowerPoint is already changing the way instructors teach and students learn. Some of these trends are good, but many are not. In this post, I?d like to highlight a few of the more prominent trends, and then pose a few ideas for reversing them? before it?s too late!

Trend #1 ? PowerPoint slides are the primary source of study.

• Description: Before or after class, instructors provide students with copies of the PowerPoint slides that are used during class. In the weeks that follow, students pour over those slides meticulously, searching for clues to solve the classic mystery, ?what?s going to be on the next exam?? In some cases, an instructor?s entire curriculum is provided to students via PowerPoint.
• Issues: A PowerPoint slide deck can either function as the backdrop for a well-executed presentation (synchronous), or as a useful study tool that is consumed in solitary study (asynchronous), but not both. Presentations that contain too much detail can overwhelm and confuse an audience, and handouts that don?t contain enough detail are not very useful for study.
• Ideas: The strategy that I recommend is a two-step process. First, create detailed handouts that contain prose (paragraphs and sentences), data, and complex images that can be studied methodically. When the handout is complete, transfer only the most important elements to PowerPoint, and represent those elements with direct, bold, and simple imagery.
• Question: If we can all agree that scanning an entire page out of a textbook and pasting it into PowerPoint is bad practice, then why isn?t the same true for replacing textbook pages with PowerPoint slides?
• Additional Resources: Standardized testing is our educational system?s primary method for assessing student progress, and those tests rely heavily on multiple-choice questions. We are finally beginning to realize that this method is, at best, flawed. PowerPoint is the perfect compliment to this flawed strategy because it allows instructors to quickly and easily create a series of giant flash cards that explain the ?what? but not the ?how? or ?why? of a topic. For more on the subject, check out this interesting article from The CaliforniaReport:?The end of d) all of the above??

Trend #2 ? Lectures are information dumps.

• Description: Classroom lectures provide the instructor with an open-ended opportunity to share everything they know about a topic. The only limiting factors are the clock and the rate at which they press the forward button on the presenter remote. Slides are filled wall-to-wall with text and data. The instructor operates under the assumption that more slides are better than less. Some students may even doubt an instructor?s abilities if the PowerPoint presentations are not lengthy and complex.
• Issues: When an instructor chooses quantity over quality, they are setting everyone up for failure. Presentations that aren?t targeted at the audience, don?t provide context, and lack insight are not memorable. This issue is even more common in scientific talks given by researchers. We all want to impress and win the approval of our peers (and even our subordinates), so we may compensate by over-explaining things. Rather than spoon-feed our audience with tasty, memorable morsels of information that leave them begging for more, we cram the entire plate down their throats all at once! PowerPoint encourages this tendency by making it all-too-easy to just plop down slide after cookie-cutter slide with the click of a button.
• Ideas: There are many ways to combat this trend, and one way is with another trend! Have you heard of ?flipping? a classroom?? The buzz-word is new but the concept is not. Essentially, a flipped classroom is one that requires students to complete passive learning activities before class (viewing recorded lectures, reading assigned material), and then uses class time for active learning activities that reinforce important concepts (group work, discussions, game-based learning, role playing, practice). If you are interested in flipping your classroom, we can help you choose a strategy for recording lectures. And let?s not forget that the key to delivering a truly insightful presentation is to simply spend more time on development. Yeah I said it! Begin by taking a step back from the details of your presentation to identify the message you?re trying to convey. Purify that message until its easily stated in one sentence, and in plain English. Now you can put your PowerPoint presentation on a diet until it?s lean and mean. Extra details that don?t directly support your message get trimmed off, important points are highlighted, and then end result is a presentation that is targeted, highly visual, and easy for the audience to digest. (What?s with all the food metaphors?!)
• Question: What makes a presentation truly memorable?
• Additional Resources: This is a great article from a faculty member in Stanford University?s School of Medicine, calling attention to this issue as it affects research presentations: Opinion: Communication Crisis in Research. And for some more info on the idea of Flipping, you can start here.

Trend #3 ? Class time is scripted.

• Description: Most higher-ed classes follow the same pattern. The students walk in, grab their usual seat, pull out a notepad/iPad, and gaze up at the projector screen just in time for the instructor to begin unleashing a full-frontal assault of PowerPoint slides chocked full of bullet points, tables, charts and images. The information keeps coming, too, only slowing on occasion to allow for questions, until the scheduled end of the class period. Rinse and repeat.
• Issues: PowerPoint, by design, practically forces linear movement through a topic. Slides are created and presented one-by-one, and in order. This structure of predictability can easily suck the life out of a room, and places too much emphasis on the need to ?get through all the slides? (I actually die a little inside every time I hear an instructor say those words), instead of placing the emphasis on ensuring the audience?s comprehension of the subject, by whatever means necessary.
• Ideas: I challenge all instructors to conduct at least one class per semester without PowerPoint or a laptop. This forces you and the students to get creative, and the change of pace can be refreshing. You can also mix things up and continue to use PowerPoint. For example, you can simulate branching in your presentation through the use of hyperlinked text or buttons, allowing you to move on a non-linear path that is dictated by the student?s needs. If you want to get a little crazy, skip PowerPoint and use Prezi, which completely debunks the idea of linearity by allowing you to create one, giant canvas of objects that can be freely explored in any direction. Another interesting idea is to completely replace informational slides with slides that pose questions to the audience, encouraging a discussion and discovery of the answer. This technique also serves to creating a pause in the action to allow for thought, and absorption. And don?t be afraid to abandon your PowerPoint completely to attack a question head-on with a white board and marker (?B? key to black-out the screen, ?W? to white it out, these keyboard shortcuts works in PowerPoint and Keynote).
• Question: Learning doesn?t occur in a straight line. Instead, learning happens on a series of simultaneously-occurring tangents (say that three times fast) that include questions, answers, experimentation and in the end discovery. If this is true, then why do we discourage these tangents in the classroom?
• Additional Resources: In the 21st century, is the ?factory model of teaching? really the best we can do? Check out this interesting article from Ken Carroll: Linear and Non-Linear Learning

So, now that I?ve thrown down the gauntlet and systematically blamed everyone and everything for ruining the fragile minds of our youth (sorry about that), I want to know what you think! Are you an instructor, or a student? How do you feel about these trends? Are there other trends that you?ve seen? Do agree or disagree with the points presented in this article? How do YOU think PowerPoint should be used in higher education?

Source: http://blogs.library.ucsf.edu/betterpresenter/2013/02/13/powerpoint-induced-trends-in-higher-ed/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=powerpoint-induced-trends-in-higher-ed

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OnRamp, A Free, Open Source Ad Server From OpenX, Gets Shut Down After Getting Besieged By Hackers

Another victory for hackers and a blow for the security of open source systems: OpenX, the online and mobile advertising company that announced a $22.5 million fund raising just last month, says that it is closing down its OnRamp open source ad serving platform, after the service was hacked on February 9, and the company determined that it would be too risky and costly to continue using it securely.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/OD3Ap9VUP4Y/

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Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Worth $195 Billion, Space Miners Say

The space rock set to give Earth a historically close shave this Friday (Feb. 15) may be worth nearly $200 billion, prospective asteroid miners say.

The 150-foot-wide (45 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 ? which will zoom within 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) of Earth on Friday, marking the closest approach by such a large space rock that astronomers have ever known about in advance ? may harbor $65 billion of recoverable water and $130 billion in metals, say officials with celestial mining firm Deep Space Industries.

That's just a guess, they stressed, since 2012 DA14's composition is not well known and its size is an estimate based on the asteroid's brightness.

The company has no plans to go after 2012 DA14; the asteroid's orbit is highly tilted relative to Earth, making it too difficult to chase down. But the space rock's close flyby serves to illustrate the wealth of asteroid resources just waiting to be extracted and used, Deep Space officials said. [Deep Space Industries' Asteroid-Mining Vision in Photos]

"While this week's visitor isn't going the right way for us to harvest it, there will be others that are, and we want to be ready when they arrive," Deep Space chairman Rick Tumlinson said in a statement Tuesday (Feb. 12).

Deep Space Industries wants to use asteroid resources to help humanity expand its footprint out into the solar system. The company plans to convert space rock water into rocket fuel, which would be used to top up the tanks of off-Earth satellites and spaceships cheaply and efficiently.

Asteroidal metals such as iron and nickel, for their part, would form the basis of a space-based manufacturing industry that could build spaceships, human habitats and other structures off the planet.

The idea is to dramatically reduce the amount of material that needs to be launched from Earth, since it currently costs at least $10 million to send 1 ton of material to high-Earth orbit, officials said.

"Getting these supplies to serve communications satellites and coming crewed missions to Mars from in-space sources like asteroids is key if we are going to explore and settle space," Tumlinson said.

Deep Space Industries is just one of two asteroid-mining firms that have revealed their existence and intentions in the past 10 months. The other is Planetary Resources, which has financial backing from billionaires such as Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt.

Deep Space aims to launch a phalanx of small, robotic prospecting probes called Fireflies in 2015. Sample-return missions to potential targets would occur shortly thereafter, with space mining operations possibly beginning around 2020.

Planetary Resources also hopes its activities open the solar system up for further and more efficient exploration. The company may launch its first low-cost prospecting space telescopes within the next year or so.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall?or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?and?Google+.?

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/earth-buzzing-asteroid-worth-195-billion-space-miners-040837560.html

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10 Things to Know for Tuesday

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Tuesday:

1. BENEDICT'S AMBITIOUS AGENDA LARGELY UNFULFILLED

In many ways, the pope's nearly eight-year tenure fell far short, says AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll.

2. WHERE THE NEXT POPE MIGHT COME FROM

Many in the church believe Latin America ? with some 40 percent of the world's Catholics ? deserves one of its own at the helm.

3. MONEY STILL A KEY WORRY

Most voters want Obama to talk about the economy during Tuesday's State of the Union address, a poll shows.

4. FOR US, THE BEGINNING OF THE END IN AFGHANISTAN

The American withdrawal from Afghanistan gets under way in earnest, with a convoy of shipping containers leaving the country.

5. SYRIA'S REBELS SOLIDIFY THEIR POSITION

By capturing the nation's largest dam, the opposition now controls much of the water flow in the country's north and east.

6. 'OUTNUMBERED, OUTGUNNED AND ALMOST OVERRUN'

Obama bestows the nation's highest award for military valor on former Staff Sgt. Clinton Romesha, who helped successfully defend an Army outpost against hundreds of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

7. HOW THE COST OF A HIP REPLACEMENT VARIES

Depending on the hospital, the surgery can run anywhere from $11,000 to nearly $126,000, researchers find.

8. PENTAGON CONSIDERS DIALING BACK ON DRONES

Any cuts in the program, though, wouldn't affect strikes against terror suspects.

9. WHY YOUR WHISKEY IS GETTING WEAKER

Maker's Mark is watering down its bourbon ? a way, it says, to keep up with increasing demand.

10. WHAT WESTMINSTER WON'T TOLERATE: PERFORMANCE-ENHANCED DOGS

That means no cosmetic surgery and no steroids. "It goes against the spirit of showing dogs," club President Sean McCarthy says.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/10-things-know-tuesday-103642113.html

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Parents who praise effort can bolster children's persistence, self-belief

Toddlers who receive praise of their efforts, such as ?you worked hard on that,? rather than praise of their personal qualities, such as ?you?re a good girl,? are more likely to prefer challenging tasks and to believe that hard work can improve intelligence and personality, new research at the University of Chicago reveals.

The kind of praise focused on effort, called process praise, ?sends the message that effort and actions are the sources of success, leading children to believe they can improve their performance through hard work,? said Elizabeth Gunderson, assistant professor of psychology at Temple University and lead author on a study conducted while she was a graduate student at the University of Chicago.

The findings, published in the paper ?Parent Praise to 1-3 Year-Olds Predicts Children?s Motivational Frameworks 5 Years Later,? are the first to show the impact of parents? praise in a naturalistic setting. The study, published online in the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers from Stanford University as well as the University of Chicago.

Short-term laboratory studies have found that process praise results in greater persistence and better performance on challenging tasks. Praise that is focused on the child?s characteristics, such as ?You?re a big boy,? sends the message that a child?s ability is fixed and results in decreased persistence and performance.

In the new study, scholars found that the percentage of process praise parents used when their children were one to three years old significantly predicted whether children welcomed challenges, had strategies for overcoming failure, and thought intelligence and personality were malleable five years later.

For the study, the team videotaped 53 children and their parents during everyday interactions at home. Each family was videotaped three times, when children were 1, 2 and 3 years old. From the videotapes, the scholars identified instances in which parents praised their children and classified their praise as either process praise, person praise or other praise.

Process praise emphasized a child?s effort, strategies or actions (?You?re doing a good job?). Person praise implied that a child possessed a fixed, positive quality, (?You?re so smart?). Other praise included all other types of praise (?Nice? or ?There you go?).

Researchers followed up with the children five years later, when they were 7 to 8 years old. The follow-up assessed whether they preferred challenging versus easy tasks, were able to generate strategies for overcoming setbacks, and believed that intelligence and personality are traits that can be developed (rather than being unchangeable).

When parents used a larger percentage of process praise, their children reported more positive approaches to challenges and believed that their traits could improve with effort.?However, the children's responses were not related to the total amount of praise they received.

?In addition, parents of boys used a greater percentage of process praise than parents of girls. Later, boys were more likely to have positive attitudes about academic challenges than girls and to believe that intelligence could be improved,? said co-author Susan Levine, the Stella M. Rowley Professor in Psychology at UChicago.

?Our results demonstrate that process praise?praise that emphasizes children?s effort, actions and strategies?predicts children?s attitudes toward challenges and their beliefs about trait malleability five years later,? Gunderson said. ?These findings suggest that improving the quality of early parental praise may help children develop the belief that their future success is in their own hands.??

Other authors in the study were Susan Goldin-Meadow, the Beardsley Ruml Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at UChicago; Carol S. Dweck, the Lewis & Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford; and Stanford graduate students Sarah Gripshover and Carissa Romero.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and by the National Center for Education Research.

Source: http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2013/02/12/parents-who-praise-effort-can-bolster-children-s-persistence-self-belief

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Funeral of ex-Navy SEAL Kyle set for Tuesday

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Surrounded by her husband's military friends, one who offered a glove to wipe away her tears, Taya Kyle stood in front of her husband's flag-draped coffin, her voice trembling as she described to a crowd of thousands what ex-Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle meant to his family, friends and country.

"Chris, there isn't enough time to tell you everything you mean to me and everything you taught me," his widow said Monday at Cowboys Stadium during a two-hour memorial service for her husband, a decorated sniper and best-selling author who was slain earlier this month at a gun range in North Texas.

Kyle's funeral service is scheduled for Tuesday. He will be buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin after a 200-mile funeral procession starting in the Dallas area. Drivers along Interstate 35 will not be allowed to pass the procession, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Nearly 7,000 people, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her husband, attended the service Monday. Dozens of military personnel and others were seated in front of the podium near the Dallas Cowboys' star at midfield, where Kyle's coffin was placed at the beginning of the memorial.

Taya Kyle described herself as broken but said the family will "put one foot in front of the other" to get through their grief. She told her two children that they will remember Kyle's silly side, Texas twang and prayers they prayed together.

After her eulogy, country singer Randy Travis sang "Whisper My Name," which he said Taya Kyle had told him was a meaningful song for the couple, and "Amazing Grace." At the conclusion of the service, bagpipers played as military personnel carried out the coffin and many in the crowd saluted.

His fellow service members told mourners that Kyle was more than an excellent sniper feared by U.S. enemies ? he was a devoted family man known for his sense of humor, compassion, selflessness and generosity. Kyle completed four tours of duty in Iraq and wrote the best-selling book "American Sniper."

Childhood friends recalled his mischievous side, and one said he and Kyle played with BB guns as kids ? but Kyle "wasn't a good shot back then."

Bo French, an executive at Craft International, the security training company Kyle started after he left the Navy, told those gathered that Kyle had a passion for helping others. Kyle also founded a nonprofit, FITCO Cares, that provides at-home fitness equipment for emotionally and physically wounded veterans.

Pictures of Kyle with his family and SEALs were shown on a large screen in the stadium. The back page of the memorial service program included copies of handwritten notes from Kyle's young kids: "I will miss your heart. I will love you even if you died" from his daughter, and "I miss you a lot. One of the best things that has happened to me is you" from his son.

Iraq War veteran Eddie Ray Routh, 25, has been charged in the Feb. 2 killings of Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield at a North Texas gun range. Routh is jailed in Erath County on $3 million bail.

Taya Kyle also paid tribute to Littlefield during the service Monday, saying he was the "effortless, no expectations" friend that her husband needed.

Many said before Monday's service that they didn't know the 38-year-old Kyle. Air Force Master Sgt. Kevin Phillips said he came from his Fort Worth home to honor "a brother in arms."

Steven O'Bryan and his wife, Carol, drove more than two hours from their home in Marshall in East Texas because "he's just an American hero," Carol O'Bryan said.

FITCO's director has said the men apparently had been helping Routh work through post-traumatic stress disorder.

Kyle, Littlefield and Routh arrived together at the Rough Creek Lodge shooting range, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth, authorities say. Routh later fled in Kyle's truck and went to his sister's home.

According to a search warrant, Routh told his sister and brother-in-law that the men "were out shooting target practice and he couldn't trust them so he killed them before they could kill him." Routh's sister called the police, describing her brother as "psychotic." Routh was arrested after a short police chase.

Routh's brother-in-law told authorities that Routh had recently been diagnosed with PTSD.

One of Routh's attorneys, J. Warren St. John, said his client had been released from the Dallas Veterans Affairs hospital against his family's wishes just two days before the shootings.

Littlefield's funeral was held Friday in Midlothian. Afterward, Littlefield's relatives said the outing with Routh was intended to be therapeutic.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/funeral-ex-navy-seal-kyle-set-tuesday-081042803.html

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Obama vows job creation without adding to deficit

President Barack Obama walks with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough down the West Wing Colonnade of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, ahead of tonight's State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama walks with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough down the West Wing Colonnade of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, ahead of tonight's State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

FILE ? In this Jan. 24, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. As President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, Feb. 12, 2013, he presides over an economy much healthier than the one he inherited four years ago. Yet growth remains slow and unemployment high. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Graphic shows number of words used in official and unofficial State of the Union addresses

President Barack Obama waves as he walks down the West Wing Colonnade of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, ahead of tonight's State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

FILE - In this May 1, 2011 file photo, musician and gun rights activist Ted Nugent addresses a seminar at the National Rifle Association's convention in Pittsburgh. Rep. Steve Stockman , R-Texas, says he's invited Nugent, who has referred to President Barack Obama's administration as "evil, America-hating," to Tuesday's State of the Union address. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama is pledging to create "good, middle-class jobs" without adding to the nation's deficit.

In excerpts released ahead of his State of the Union address, Obama calls job creation his "North Star." He's imploring Congress to focus on how to attract more jobs to the U.S., equip Americans to compete for those positions and ensure that hard work leads to a decent living.

The president says none of his new economic proposals would increase the deficit "by a single dime." He says the country needs a smarter government, not a bigger government.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-12-State%20of%20Union/id-18ad4a752bd64e1a9f571bd8bfc322d3

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