Bradley Busch@BradleyKBusch
Nov 25
7 tweets
Fancy a Friday thread? Go on then. This one is on PowerPoint. First developed in the 80s, it was never intended to be used in education (was built for businesses). Is now arguably most popular teaching device. Here are 5 studies that give food for thought on how to use it 
(1/6)
(1/6)This paper found that giving students access to powerpoint slides as a handout at the start of the lesson helped. It led to better note-taking, less time needed to prepare for a final test and better performance on the final test (2/6)
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ac…
This study investigated irrelevant or excessive animations/sounds on learning. Generally speaking, if the animation doesn’t directly illustrate the learning point (I.e. is redundant) it doesn’t help learning (3/6)
researchgate.net/publication/23…
Talking of redundant information, this rather nifty study looked at reducing the number of words on a slide. The general consensus? Less is better, especially when it doesn’t add anything new. For me, words are a prompt, not the script (4.6) researchgate.net/publication/22…
This one is quite fascinating, it found that when learners were given an audio version of information first then a visual version, they outperformed learners that were only given one format (5.6) journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.151…
And finally, if you’ve got this far, I’ve saved the best til last. For me, this is is the best/most comprehensive overview of how to reduce cognitive load in powerpoint that I have read. Lots of good tips in this one (6/6) uky.edu/~gmswan3/544/9…
Final thought. Is it the best tool? Who knows. It def has its strengths and weaknesses. But if you are going to use, the general advice would appear to be:
1. Less is more (both words and animations)
2. Don’t get students to write down every word
Hope that helps folks 
Bradley Busch
@BradleyKBusch
Helping teachers use research, students to study & footballers kick a ⚽️ Psych @Inner_Drive. Author of Science of Learning 🧠 Co-editor of Spotlight magazine 📖
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