OK, if you’re reading this it’s because you realise that PowerPoint can be a useful tool in making things clearer. If you’ve made it this far in the top ten tips it’s because you enjoy having that support. But PowerPoint and Support don’t need to go together. You could use many a visual to back up what you’re saying. Here are some suggestions:

a. Use a website
Using the web is always a bit risky if the worse case scenario happens: there is no internet connection for your presentation. However, web pages can be saved to disk in advance, creating an ‘off-line’ version in a jiffy. You can print them as PDFs, too, leaving the webpage sitting somewhere on your hard disk for later use. Beware of text being too small on websites you use to illustrate your point, especially if you are expecting your audience to read something on the page. Consider using the Zoom feature of Macintosh OSX or the Magnification tool in the Accessibility menu of your PC. This will magnify whatever your mouse hovers above.

b. Use a weblog
Watching Peter Ford at the Communicate.06 conference was a revelation to me and several others. He had created a weblog with one, fairly typical ‘welcome’ message he had posted before. However, from the moment he saw and interacted with his audience he was able to choose posts from his administration window and publish them, using these posts and the hyperlinks in them (prepared in advance) to give tailored content to his audience. Three or four posts never made it into the cut and would probably not have been applicable to his audience.

This could work really well if students get turned off and need a change of focus or if they need more examples from somewhere on the web. The best thing is that the lesson structure is there for all to see after the lesson. Immediately. All the teacher has to do is ask the audience what they want to do more of and – ‘click!’ – the next part of the presentation is published. If comments are turned on to each post then students can provide homework under each element of the presentation or ask for further help on that particular area.

c. Use digital photographs
Does a picture tell a thousand words? Could it help explain something grammatical. How could an image reveal the future tense, for example? How could it show the difference between past and future tenses?

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