Death by PowerPoint and how to avoid it...

PowerPoint is a fantastic tool for teaching. It allows teachers to generate engaging presentations that can be used regularly to ensure consistency of teaching.

It provides the opportunity for staff to bring teaching to life with coloured diagrams, animations, music and video. Worksheet questions can be converted into interactive quizzes and complex diagram images can appear in an instant.

Over the years, I have observed a range of individuals, both staff and students, use PowerPoint to teach and train others in an effective and engaging way.

However, there is a dark side to PowerPoint. I still remember my first ever teacher training day. I was eager to hear the voice of experience guide me through what would be one of the toughest years of my life. What I received was a barrage of what felt like hundreds of PowerPoint slides containing endless text, random pictures and tables with writing so small it would have taken a telescope to read.