Ask-Dr-Kirk

Life After Death By Powerpoint

Check out this video by Don McMillan titled, "Life After Death By Powerpoint."   It's very funny but does make the key points that bad powerpoint slides are:

• Too wordy
• Contain spelling errors
• Use bad color schemes
• Have too much data on a slide
• Use distracting animation
• Have too many bullet points (hmmm....)

Tips On Improving Your Powerpoint Slides

Scott Elias has an 18 minute slideshow on how to make your powerpoint slides more effective by addressing issues of content, delivery, and design.  He aims his remarks towards teachers but the information would be just as useful for our students who are making presentations in our classes. 

Thanks to Mike Sansone for blogging on this great resource.

Overheard in the hallway...

Student to Professor:  "I don't know why I didn't get a better grade on the exam.  I studied for two hours!

Professor to Student:  "It took me longer than two hours to put together the exam!"

Here's A Review Technique For Your Class

I tried using a "Wikipedia" approach to reviewing class notes last week. We had been discussing various motivational theories the class before.  I put the students into teams, assigned each team a different theory, gave each team a marker, and had them write everything they could remember about the theory on the board (this was a small class of 24 students).  After a few minutes, I had them switch to another team's area on the board and with a different color marker, cross out anything that they did not agree with or add anything else they thought belonged there.  I did this a couple more times and then we discussed the theories.

In a larger class you could send up a representative from each team to write on the board.  Or the teams could use flip chart paper at their desks.

The students really enjoyed the exercise and I think it will benefit them in learning the material.

How Do I Teach A Really Small Class?

Dear Dr. Kirk:

I enjoy your articles immensely.  I have a question that I haven't seen addressed in your "Ask-Dr-Kirk" e-letter.  I am teaching a 'tiny' (4 student) undergraduate section this Spring ("Crime and Victims").  We all say we want smaller classes, but this presents itself as a challenge to me.  With such a small group I'm somewhat nervous about what the dynamics will be and how best to approach the semester with them.  My materials are prepared for a class of at least a dozen, but this term, for a variety of reasons, there are only 4 in the class.  I'm thinking of doing it even as a one-on-one kind of tutorial/independent study approach, but I'd rather not have to do that.  If you have covered this situation before, I'd love to know some of the feedback you've gotten.  I can't seem to find any articles online in general periodicals which address this question.  Thanks--and keep inspiring us!

Dr. John R Gehm (University of Sioux Falls)

Dear Professor Gehm,

Thanks for the positive feedback.  Re your question, we think we would like smaller classes but there really needs to be a critical mass!  I haven't had a class quite that small but occasionally will have one of 12 or 14 students.

Some of the challenges are that you usually get through the lecture materials faster; you have more class time as presentations and discussions don't take as long; absences are more notable; and it can be difficult to do some of the group activities.  In addition, I think it's harder to keep a serious learning environment as the class tends to be so informal.

I would develop a list of activities and application exercises for those days that you finish up early.  I also might treat the students as teaching assistants or interns.  The students could bring in relevant newspaper or journal articles, do internet research, interview people in the law enforcement field, etc., and "teach" the rest of the students.  They could also develop a class portfolio of informational sources and maybe write their own cases/scenarios that could be used as teaching tools.

With your permission, I am putting your letter on the blog.  Has anyone else out there experienced such a small class size or have any ideas of what Dr. Gehm could do?

Good luck with your class.  Let me know how it goes.

Dr. Kirk

You Can Learn A New Vocabulary And End World Hunger Too!

Freerice.com is a website that tests your knowledge of vocabulary words.  It's fun to do and even comes with their warning that, "This game may make you smarter [and] may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance..." 

Even better, each time you correctly identify a word's definition, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.  This is made possible by advertisers on the site.

Thanks to James Maher for sharing this site with me.  I'm up to level 41 and am sending the challenge out to Kenneth Davis, Patti Digh, Timothy Johnson, Mike Sansone, Terry Starbucker, Liz Strauss, and Mike Wagner. Let's help end world hunger and get smarter too!

What Is In Your Students' Water Bottles?

Recently I wrote about students using their water bottles to cheat on exams.  I had a very successful professional email me that:

"I thought I would confess to you privately that in high school, I had a drinking problem and as we weren’t allowed to carry drinks into class, I drank vodka (1/4 vodka, 3/4 water) all day.  It’s never a bad idea to check the water bottles!"

Some universities have a policy that food and drinks are not allowed in the classrooms.  This is a good reason to follow that policy.

Do You Know Your Students' Names?

One of the things I talk about in my workshops on teaching is the importance of learning students' names.  I was never good at this myself until I decided to make it a point to practice this skill.  After all, we require our students to learn theories, concepts, terms, formulas, dates, etc.  We should at least do them the courtesy of learning their names.  The students will be surprised and pleased you did and less likely to be disruptive.

Some tips:

• Repeat the name back to the student as soon as you first hear it.
• If a student has a question, ask for his/her name and use it when you answer the question.
• Try to make a connection: Carol has curly hair.
• Use a seating chart so that you can practice connecting names and faces.  Spend a couple minutes right before class looking at the students and chart to test yourself. 
• Consider taking photos of students to help you learn names.

Did You Know There Are Websites For Fake Doctors' Excuses?

I heard today that there are websites that sells fake doctors' excuses to students or employees to use in missing class or work.  I won't print the web addresses here but you could google for them. 

I don't take documentation for missing class...instead I give my undergrad students the equivalent of one week in a 15 week semester that they can miss for any reason.  Any additional absences result in a loss of participation points.

When I went to one of these websites today, I found three misspelled words on their homepage...maybe the author should have gone to class!