Good evening, interwebs.
At the end of his article(Powerpointless), Jaimie McKenzie mentioned that, for teachers and students to become effective powerpoint-er's, it is imperative that we stay away from the temptation of being glib.
Glib?
Though I knew the word, it hadn't hit me as anything of terrible importance, rather just something to, well, glibly avoid!
That is, until he read the definition.
Marked by ease and fluency of speech or writing that often suggests or stems from insincerity, superficiality, or deceitfulness.
This definition, in my opinion, sums up my struggle with power points and the temptation of our students. Power points have become an excuse for students to "wow" others with flashy flash and cheap clip art, all in an effort to deter from the fact that they haven't put in the effort.
McKenzie pointed out that really, a good presentation on power point should be 80% research and 20% presentation. It is this type of research and effort that will make a power point come alive. Sure, there will always be skills to work on and McKenzie recognizes this. It is important to be lively, and to have eye contact and to engage the audience with a gripping and hopefully convincing, presentation.
However, no matter how gripping the presentation and smooth the speech, the definition of "glib" stands tall. A great speech with no backbone might reveal us to be what know one wants to be labeled as: insincere.
I found it interesting that the article ended with this definition. It's as if McKenzie is stating, "Look, get all the skills of an important power point down, it will help. But if you don't put in the work, you will be left with no spine."
So, I leave you beautiful readers with some questions. How do we preach against "glibness" in a classroom? How can we prevent students from avoiding research and focusing on the presentation? Finally, how can their be a marriage between focus upon rigorous study and gripping presentation?
More to come, as I improve my response :)
Sell
I'm so glad you looked up that definition. It is definitely true that the meaningless accumulation of clip-art we are so familiar with in PowerPoint presentations is a form of glibness. Too many students cover holes in material with some form of spinning clip-art and a thunder of computer generated applause at the end. Does anyone really even buy it?
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. It is especially easy for jr. highers to fall into the trap of glibness. Then again, when we are teaching jr. highers, it's all the more easy for us to fall into it. Sincerity is sometimes a lost art.
ReplyDeleteI also caught the reference to "glib" and thought it was aptly used! It's almost like "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." I also found the percentages of balancing our presentations to be an interesting take considering I prefer the presentation over the research! :)
ReplyDeleteI think that if students are being properly trained to write research papers in the first place, then the presentation will follow suit. If the presentations lack genuine credibility, then we need to go back to teaching how to research and how to make that research palatable for our audience.
Thanks for sharing, Adam!