Begin with: The Importance Of Telling Stories When Teaching Or Presenting
Helping our students learn how to deliver good presentations, and helping ourselves practice what we preach, is always a challenging exercise (at least, it is for me). I thought it might be useful to create a “The Best…” list with the resources that I’ve found useful for doing both.
You might also be interested in The Best Resources For Teaching Students The Differences Between A Good & Bad Slide.
Here are my picks for The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations:
10 Powerpoint Tips for Preparing a Professional Presentation
From design to meaning: a whole new way of presenting?
Make Better Presentations – The Anatomy of a Good Speech
Really Bad PowerPoint by Seth Godin
Brain Rules For Presenters (thanks to EdTech Update for the tip)
This is a very interesting post about the Glance Test:
“…slides should be processed in 3 seconds or less. It’s impossible for people to process your slides and your words simultaneously. The test gives you a quantifiable way to test a slide’s viability as a glance medium by calculating a signal-to-noise ratio for individual slides.”
This can be a very useful tool for both teachers and students to keep in mind when developing any kind of presentation slides.
The Problem With PowerPoint is an excellent article from the BBC.
Public Speaking – How I Prepare Every Time
13 Best Practice Tips for Effective Presentation Handouts shares some excellent ideas.
The Duarte blog has a great post about the presentation of a fifteenth century Italian architect. It’s titled Great Moments in Presentation History: The Architect and the Egg.
Its focus is what they call S.T.A.R. Moments ™. This is how they define it:
S.T.A.R. stands for “Something They’ll Always Remember” and S.T.A.R. Moments refer to the memorable moments in a presentation that stick in the minds of your audience long after the presentation is over.
They have another post titled Of S.T.A.R.s and Mosquitoes that talks about these moments at TED Talks, including when Bill Gates let some mosquitoes loose on the crowd.
It’s a good idea to keep in mind when planning a presentation — what is that one defining moment to want to happen?
Dodging Bullets In Presentations is a useful slideshow to review.
Story Power in Presentations is a very good post on the importance of using stories in presentations. In fact, it provides “biometric evidence” demonstrating its effectiveness.
I have numerous examples of bad and good PowerPoint presentations on this list. This one may “take the cake,” though. Check-out If Only Martin Luther King Had Modern Software and Jargon: the Powerpoint Version of “I Have a Dream” (PPT). Then watch his actual speech. I show this contrast to my International Baccalaureate Theory Of Knowledge class as they prepare for their Oral Presentations.
Here’s a video from the organizer of Ignite presentations (somewhat similar to TED Talks) giving advice on how to present at those conferences. It, too, provides good advice on giving public presentations. Anecdote shares some additional advice related to the video.
“What makes a great scientific talk?” is an excellent post by David Winter. His advice, though, is excellent for any kind of presentation — not just one related to science.
“Clean Up Your Mess: A Guide To Visual Design For Everyone” provides the most accessible advice I’ve see on visual design — whether it be for websites, ads, slides, etc.
The Secrets of Storytelling: Why We Love a Good Yarn
8 Simple Storytelling Tips For Business Owners
Here are a few short videos on making good PowerPoint presentations:
5 things audiences hate about presentations is a useful Slideshare presentation. Thanks to Donna Baumbach for the tip.
Cartoon: PowerPoint Fever is from The New Yorker via This Week in Education.
How to Present like Steve Jobs is from Kiss Metrics.
The Secret to Dynamic Presentations is from Leadership Freak.
How to Get — and Keep — Someone’s Attention is from Annie Murphy Paul.
How To Give A Great Speech is from Forbes.
Nancy Duarte has an excellent series in the Harvard Business Review about making good presentations. Links to each one of the other short articles can be found at the bottom of the one I link to….
Secrets From a TED2013 Speaker: Preparing for the “Talk of One’s Life” has helpful advice for any presentation.
This inaugural quote is from Marta Kagan in 7 Lessons From the World’s Most Captivating Presenters. I’m adding this info to The Best Sources Of Advice For Making Good Presentations:
DEATH TO POWERPOINT: HOW TO SPEAK LIKE A PRO WITHOUT THE SLIDES is from Fast Company.
Don’t Be Boring: A Surefire Approach to Engaging Your Audience — Part 1 is by Nancy Duarte.
The British Councils offers some good student presentation tips.
Quote Of The Day: The Importance Of Storytelling
It’s Time for PechaKucha: Do it with Style
A TED speaker coach shares 11 tips for right before you go on stage is from TED Talks.
.@alicrowley makes it look easy!Not a natural public speaker?Check out these presentation tips-http://t.co/a7PVAdcUjX pic.twitter.com/Mf6uqzqGVu
— CTQ (@teachingquality) June 15, 2015
10 PowerPoint Tips for Teachers is from Tekhnologic.
Why Your Students Forgot Everything On Your PowerPoint Slides is from Larry Cuban’s blog.
If you want student presentations to be more engaging, use this checklist. See https://t.co/XwoaSEUfzu. #teaching pic.twitter.com/LL89vKwncD
— Erik Palmer (@erik_palmer) January 22, 2016
my ugle #microprogression chart helped groups improve first presentations @teachkate @MaggieBRoberts #diyliteracy pic.twitter.com/DuaYbmEE0f
— Ernie Cox (@erniec) August 31, 2016
Simple & Effective Speaking Rubric For Class Presentations
GREAT ARTICLE TO HELP PRESENTERS WITH “UM,” “AH,” AND “YOU KNOW”
Why Your Students Forgot Everything On Your PowerPoint Slides is from EdSurge.
Good Advice On Making Presentations
There’s a movement for better posters at science conferences. is an interesting article about a new format for scientific “posters.” It seems to me it could be worth using the format in class and reinforce the idea that students are working as scientists. Here’s the format:
NEW ARTICLE ON ARISTOTLE & PERSUASION WOULD BE GREAT FOR STUDENTS – & TEACHERS – TO READ
Not Sure If You’ll Find A Better Guide For Making Good Presentations Than This One…
THIS IS THE BEST ARTICLE I’VE SEEN FOR HELPING STUDENTS PREPARE FOR PRESENTATIONS
This is how to tell a story . . . to kids or bigs:
1. Have a beginning, middle & end.
2. Use your whole body.
3. Take the story in an expected direction.
4. Pause.
5. Encourage audience participation.
6. Wrap it up & leave them wanting more. https://t.co/FLacihqBip
— Daniel Pink (@DanielPink) October 22, 2020
Tips on Persuading People From the Head of TED Talks is from Slate.
How a Simple Presentation Framework Helps Students Learn is from Edutopia.
What the Best Presenters Do Differently is from Harvard Business Review.
How to present at an international conference (IATEFL Belfast 2022) is by Sandy Millin.
Here are some planning sheets to help the students think of ways in which they can start and close their oral presentations, and how to keep their audience engaged while delivering them. https://t.co/aAS7usBEEQ pic.twitter.com/Wn0iER4Ml9
— Miguel Míguez (@onthesamepagelt) March 21, 2023
This study investigated the effect of “decorative” animations on learning. They found the students were less able to recall content presented in the presence of a decorative but relevant animation compared with a still image. https://t.co/jpvzpH57AA
— Zach Groshell (he/him) (@MrZachG) April 15, 2023
Suggestions and feedback, as always, are welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.
Hi Larry, here’s a SmartLemming.com new post on presentation skills:
Smart Lemming Rundown: 10 Simple Secrets of the World’s Greatest Business Communicators
Link: http://smartlemming.com/2009/06/smart-lemming-rundown-10-simple-secrets-of-the-worlds-greatest-business-communicators/
Lori Grant
Thank you for mentioning Garr in your post. I work for Peachpit Press and thought you and your readers might be interested in knowing that he just released his first online streaming video, Presentation Zen: The Video, where he expands on the ideas presented in his book and blog. More info can be found here:
http://tr.im/lFvO
Not to be forgotten speedy presentation techniques such as Pecha Kucha20×20 (20slides auto-advancing every 20sec) http://www.pecha-kucha.org or Ignite by O’Reilly20×15 http://ignite.oreilly.org.
Hugely popular because of the snappy presentations and from my own experience, a sobering excercise.
Rgds Heike
Brilliant post and thanks so much for compiling this list. Methinks a very important and oft shared bookmark!
Karenne
I’ve been looking for resources on giving PowerPoint presentations so that I can help my students learn this skill. What I’m really looking for is an example of someone giving a GOOD PowerPoint presentation. If anyone knows of one on youtube, I would love to see a link. I can do one myself for them, but I’ve actually been to some conferences where the speakers did awesome presentations using PowerPoint the way it is meant to be used, and I’d love to show something like this to my students, regardless of the topic. Thanks!
Hi Amanda,
Nice to hear of someone searching for an example of PowerPoint being used effectively! It so often is the other way (and yes, there are lots of examples of bad PowerPoint presentations!).
Whilst the videos we recently posted onto our YouTube channel may not be EXACTLY what you’re after, I hope they’ll give you some food for thought:
http://www.youtube.com/user/eyefulpresentations
In the meantime, I’d recommend viewing Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”, a presentation designed by Duarte Design (http://www.duarte.com)
Hope this helps!
Simon
Hi Amanda,
Earlier I mentioned to Larry a Pecha Kucha, speedy presentation technique.
If you would like to learn what Pecha Kucha is all about, please watch this recorded presentation of mine, which is a Pecha Kucha about Pecha Kucha.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ4supn_I3g
Incidentally we had a Pecha Kucha night at the Virtual Round Table conference on Fri, Nov 13 and were able to watch 7 Pecha Kuchas at that time. One was better than the other. It was amazingly brilliant. These were recorded and I am in the middle of processing the recordings. Once they are done, I will send you the links.
I am sure you will very much enjoy sharing them with your learners.
Rgds Heike
i found this site very useful.
this would totally be in good use
why didn’t i think of this?
Hi all,
You might also find this PDF a useful addition to the other sources listed…
http://www.eyefulpresentations.com/beatingdeathbyppt/
Enjoy!
Simon
i learned that when you create a powerpoint you have to make sure that you keep the design basic and simple. Use the same font face and sizes on all slides. a poor choice of color can shatter your presentation. And also NEVER read your powerpoint, keywords only. Your slides are ONLY there to guide you. and have more images in your slides than text !