Adventures in PowerPoint: Teach with Punched-up Visual Aids and See the Difference
by
Alison Sulentic

One day last semester, a student who had witnessed my struggle to get the PowerPoint projector, laptop computer, and remote control unit to work at the same time gently observed, "You're pretty new to computers, aren't you?" Yet just a few moments earlier, I had been congratulating myself as a pathfinder forging heartily into a new technological frontier. These different perspectives illustrate the gap between the experience of many law students, who were born to the computer age, and that of their professors, who until recently found an electric typewriter to be an excellent example of technological wizardry. Using PowerPoint can be an adventure, especially if terms like "Java" turn your students' thoughts to computers, while you contemplate beverages.

Last semester, I decided to use PowerPoint slides in my three-credit Sales course. I decided to do so for several reasons. First, Sales is a course that requires constant in-class attention to statutory language. A visual aid, such as PowerPoint, enables the class to examine the statutory language on a common visual field, rather than look exclusively at individual Code books (a practice, by the way, that I had no intention of discouraging and indeed hoped to actively encourage). Second, I prefer to teach Sales through the detailed analysis of hypotheticals. I planned to project the basic elements of the hypotheticals on the PowerPoint screen in order to help my students (and me) remember the basic fact patterns I set out. In addition, the PowerPoint projector would enable me to highlight changes in the hypothetical fact patterns as the class progressed, something that I thought would be helpful. Finally, I hoped that PowerPoint would help me add a little pizzaz to what can be a hypertechnical subject.

Now, a few months later and a semester wiser, I have emerged from my first adventure with PowerPoint with an increased enthusiasm for the medium. I also have a few words to share with those who might be considering the pros and cons of using this new technology in the classroom.

PowerPoint and Class Participation

Many professors fear, with good reason, that the use of PowerPoint will dull class participation. Students who are equipped with PowerPoint printouts will simply gaze at the screen and forego note-taking, thinking, legal analysis, etc. This is a realistic concern, and professors who opt to use PowerPoint must consider both their expectations of class participation and the means they use to stimulate class discussion.

Class participation is a necessary component of any course that utilizes the problem method. The point, after all, is to get the students to do the problems. I found that the effect that PowerPoint had on class discussion depended on the way that I structured the slides. If I presented a slide that flashed the solution to a problem on the screen, students had little incentive to discuss the problem. On the other hand, if I used the slides to state the facts of a hypothetical or to project a portion of the statute, I found that I could continue to question the students in much the same manner that I would have employed had I been working without visual aids.

Using PowerPoint may indeed cause a professor to subordinate the desire for classroom spontaneity to the need for advance preparation of a slideshow that follows a particular lesson plan. My own approach to a class like Sales is very methodical, and I keep a tight rein on the class's progress in order to cover all of the necessary doctrinal material. This approach slotted in easily with the kind of preparation necessary for a successful PowerPoint class. In other classes, where I am interested in probing a subject in a more open-ended manner or in soliciting student input concerning the direction the class is taking, I would find it harder to prepare and use PowerPoint slides effectively. While it is possible to back up or go forward in the slide show to reach a slide that addresses a point raised unexpectedly, I found that in practical terms it was cumbersome to do so.

In the post-Langdellian world, it is perhaps a heresy to suggest that some professors may find that class participation is not of critical importance. In this case, PowerPoint slides will pose no threat. A class that is taught on a lecture basis can effectively use PowerPoint slides to break up the pace of the lecture and to emphasize key points. A word to the wise is pertinent here--hatred would not be too strong a word to describe the emotion inspired by someone who reads slides aloud. If you are going to use PowerPoint to supplement your lectures, it is best to use the slides to highlight rather than to replicate the spoken word.

PowerPoint and the Power Nap

"Don't do it!" "As soon as the lights go down and the PowerPoint slides go up, eyes start to droop." "You'll be sorry." PowerPoint skeptics were not shy about their misgivings. Forewarned is forearmed, so I went into my first PowerPoint session prepared to see the students drift off into the Land of Nod. As a mother who has never really succeeded in persuading her 2-year-old that a nap is definitely a good thing, the task of actually having to prevent 100 students from napping during class seemed decidedly novel. After a few classes, I determined that there are two tricks to ensuring a nap-free PowerPoint class.

First, resist the temptation to turn the PowerPoint slides into the focus of the classroom. After hours of preparing and refining slides, I was often so enamored of my creation that I wanted to flash it on the screen and invite the students to admire my handiwork. The temptation was even greater when one of my colleagues showed me how to animate the slides. Even with the modest graphics and sound effects available in the standard PowerPoint software, I was entranced. As I cut and pasted my clip-arts and colored my fonts, I was having the best time I had had doing arts and crafts since kindergarten.

For better or worse, having fun with arts and crafts is not the way to run a successful PowerPoint class. PowerPoint is only a tool. The subject matter itself must remain the focus of the classroom experience, and the voices of the teacher and the students must remain the central focus of dialogue. PowerPoint should never become anything other than the means of delivering, communicating, and teaching a message. Through clip art and sound effects, PowerPoint can actually compete with the professor for the students' attention.

In order to counteract this tendency, teachers who use PowerPoint need to make sure that they take all steps necessary to overpower PowerPoint. I gradually learned to use PowerPoint as a prop to illustrate a point or to provide a way of focusing the students' attention on the statutory text. In some cases, I changed my own position in the classroom in order to draw the students' attention away from the slides in order to emphasize a new point. Ironically, PowerPoint itself gave me the means of walking away from the podium, where my carefully worded notes and drafts of hypotheticals rested in peace. Knowing that the PowerPoint slides would prompt me with the facts of the hypotheticals I had planned, I could walk around the classroom with confidence. In this way, I was able to help the students focus on my words and on my efforts to draw them into class discussion in a way that would have been impossible had I stayed with my notes at the podium.

Second, constant attention must be given to the students' visual experience. While it is tempting to transform your classroom into something akin to a darkened cineplex, it simply is not necessary. I found (with no scientific analysis other than polling my students) that I could conduct a class with almost all of the classroom lights blazing if I colored my slides with a dark background (usually blue) and a light, bright lettering (usually white or yellow). The contrast was sufficient to ensure that the students could easily read the screens without sitting in a darkened room.

PowerPoint and Class Preparation

My own greatest reservation about PowerPoint was its capacity to print out the slides in a handout format. I initially resisted the students' request for me to do so, because I feared that they would substitute the handout for a deeply analytical approach to class. Yet I knew that some PowerPoint afficionados reported a successful integration of the handouts into their management of the classroom experience. After some time, I came to agree. Without handouts, students often struggle to transcribe the material on the slides into their notebooks, leaving little room for attention to class discussion. I am now teaching the course for the second time and have decided to post the PowerPoint slides on a password-protected website. Students who wish to have handouts may download them and print them. In general, I think this has enabled students to focus on class discussion and on taking notes of important analytical concepts, rather than copying down slides.

PowerPoint is not for everyone, nor is it for every class. I plan to continue using PowerPoint in Sales, because I have found the ability to project statutory provisions and hypotheticals to be helpful in my effort to encourage students to engage in a detailed reading of the statute. I do not plan to use it on a regular basis, however, in my classes on health law, where I encourage students to engage in a lively discussion of policy concerns. As the saying goes, it takes the right tool to do the job right. Like most tools, PowerPoint does a great job when it is the right tool.

Sad to say, it doesn't add pizzaz. That's still up to you.