Alan
E. Mann, A.G.
fhfair@alanmann.com Accredited
Genealogist
www.alanmann.com/articles prepared
March 2005
Using PowerPoint
to Teach and Share Family
History
This
session will look at:
How can I use it to
share my family history?
How can I learn how to
use it?
How can I make my
PowerPoints dazzle?
From
www.wikipedia.org: Microsoft PowerPoint
is a computer program widely used by businesspeople, educators, and trainers to
present information, usually in the form of a slide show. It is among the most prevalent forms of persuasion
technology; according to Microsoft Corporation, 30 million presentations are
made daily with PowerPoint. In
presentation software, text, graphics, movies, and other objects are positioned
on individual pages or "slides". The "slide" analogy is a
reference to the slide projector, a device which has become somewhat obsolete
due to the use of presentation software. Slides can be printed, or (more
usually) displayed on-screen and navigated through at the command of the
presenter. Transitions between slides can be animated in a variety of ways, as
can the emergence of elements on a slide itself. The overall design of a
presentation can be controlled with a master slide; and the overall structure,
extending to the text on each slide, can be edited using a primitive outliner.
Presentations
can be saved and run in any of the file formats : the
default .ppt (presentation), .pot (template) or .pps (PowerPoint Show). Supporters and critics generally agree
that PowerPoint's ease of use can save a lot of time for people who otherwise
would have used other types of visual aid -- hand-drawn or mechanically typeset
slides, blackboards or whiteboards, or overhead projections. That same ease of
use means that others may be encouraged to make presentations who otherwise would not have used visual aids, or would not
have given a presentation at all.
PowerPoint
offers the advantage of providing visual aids. Instead of describing something
to people, you can actually show them. You can add an audio track to provide
some variety to your in person class or provide verbal learning even when you
can’t be there. Videos or “screen videos” can assist the visual learner. You can provide some of the benefit of a
face-to-face experience even to the distance learner. PowerPoint can make a
mundane (or even boring?) lecture a more captivating experience.
Making
a PowerPoint is simple. You either copy an existing PowerPoint and change the
content, or start with a blank PowerPoint and create your presentation. You
need to understand some basics, and be aware of some pitfalls. PowerPoint has
an underlying theme of a slide show. You have slides with a graphic (maybe just a background) and text or
objects. The text is the message. There are title slides and body slides, and
they have different layouts. There is
such a thing as a master layout, which can come from a template. Templates have
the extension .pot. You can save any PowerPoint as a .pot and the backgrounds
of that slide show become a template that can be used in other PowerPoints. You
can also buy or download templates created by others.
How
one slide disappears and another appears is called transition. There are
various options in transitions, covered under animation. Stick with simple, consistent transitions to avoid loosing
your audience. You don’t want the animation to draw attention away from the
message. Use the panes on the right and realize that there are separate menus
for the different types of side panes—design template, color schemes, slide
layout, transition, animation, etc. This can be confusing because the options
will depend on the pane setting. When you select design template, you will see
a thumbnail of all your templates. However, be aware that the design for title
slides is usually different than the design for body slides. Use the slide
layout pane to determine which type of slide each slide is. In custom
animation, you can either have items such a bullets or
graphics appear after a certain length or time, or wait until you click the
mouse. Timing can be a challenge when you try to do it automatically.
You
can’t add animation until you select an item on the slide to apply the
animation to. You have many options—experiment to learn (or take a tutorial or
class, see below). Try the custom animation—you can select entrance, exit,
emphasis (spinning, growing, shrinking, etc.), or motion path. Check out what
others have done, take some tutorials, and experiment with the options until
you learn how to use the available options.
Pitfalls. You should not let PowerPoint prevent
you from organizing what you want to present in a logical, flowing path to a
conclusion. When you make a slide show, always have your objective in mind. If
you don’t have a destination in mind at the outset, you will probably never get
there. Many beginning PowerPoint users get distracted by the options. Making a
variety of entrance and exit transitions
may be interesting to the author, but will be distracting and disruptive to
your objective. Inserting sounds that are not related to the content take away
rather than add to a presentation. Your intent is to teach a concept, not to
see what you can do with this cool, new tool.
How can I use it to
share my family history?
Use
PowerPoint to make you family history more interesting, particularly to the
younger generation. Photos enliven the dry facts, dates, and events of a family
history. Maps give a mental picture that stimulates memory and understanding.
Audio and video files give a presentation variety and mental excitement.
A
PowerPoint can be shared even when you are not physically present. You can put
the PowerPoint on a CD (use AutoRun if possible),
Upload it to a web site, or send it via mail or email. Putting it on the web
can make it available to hundreds of relatives at little or no cost—even to
relatives you didn’t even know you had.
How can I learn how to
use it?
There
are thousands of web sites with information on how to use PowerPoint. Be
careful to select one that illustrates using the same version of PowerPoint
that you have. If you have PowerPoint 2000, there are several features in
PowerPoint 2003 that simply won’t work in your version. There are many
PowerPoint instructional sites titled tutorials,
but many use this term very loosely.
Some are merely text, some are basic PowerPoint shows, some are complex
PowerPoint shows, some are flash presentations, and others are videos. Examples
of any one type of tutorial vary in
quality, length, and effectiveness. Here are a few examples using a variety of
learning styles:
- An excellent
example of tutorials is Sonia Coleman’s site at www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/tutorials.htm
- Free
self-paced lessons with live instructor and student message board www.hplearningcenter.com/
(requires free registration)
- Eight
lessons for PowerPoint 2000 for teachers - www.actden.com/pp/ (somewhat simple)
- Twelve
video lessons for elementary students - www.kidzonline.org/TechTraining/video.asp?UnitQry=PowerPoint
(actually more complex that the one for teachers)
- Top
quality demonstration style that teach two specific concepts in PowerPoint
- mistupid.com/tutorials/powerpoint/
- Basic
PowerPoint tutorial with slide-like screens; good discussion of color www.iupui.edu/~webtrain/tutorials/powerpoint2000_basics.html#about
- Advanced
techniques to liven up your PowerPoint www.powerpointbackgrounds.com/powerpointtutorials.htm
- Text-based
PowerPoint lessons (well done, but boring…) www.functionx.com/powerpoint/
- Check
out the MicroSoft professional site at www.microsoft.com/Education/PowerPoint.aspx
Need
to find something more? Just go to your favorite search engine (Exalead, Google, Gigablast…), type
in the search terms Powerpoint Tutorial. You’ll get
hundreds more…
How Can I Make My
PowerPoints Dazzle?
A
great place for backgrounds, utilities, ideas, and expert help on PowerPoints
is http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Presentation/Microsoft_PowerPoint/. This is only one of many web sites with PowerPoint
resources. Microsoft has a lot of information, backgrounds, templates, clip
art, and help articles on their web site. Two key links are:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/default.aspx and
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX010857971033.aspx
You
may want to use AutoRun if you are creating a
PowerPoint to share your family history – or a PowerPoint to share with others
who want to learn in their own home at their own pace. This requires only a few
extra steps, as explained by Sonia Coleman at www.soniacoleman.com/Tutorials/PowerPoint/acdpc_instructions.htm
Check
out what PowerPoint can do at: www.powerpointbackgrounds.com/templates/from-www-powerpointbackgrounds-dot-com-cool-powerpoint-animations.zip
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©Copyright 2005 by Alan E. Mann. All rights reserved.
Written permission to reproduce all or part of this syllabus material in any
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