| Guide
to using images in lectures
Collective wisdom says "a picture is worth 1000 words".
Pictures motivate and help the student understand levels of complexity
that would take a lot of words to put across.
Our experience as teachers, tell us that we could not put across our
subjects (economics of tourism, anthropology) without using illustrations.
Psychological research shows that the more parts of the brain, which
become involved in the learning process, the more likely it is to be effective.
Pedagogical studies indicate that different people have different learning
styles, some of which are more text oriented and some of which are more
visual.
There are many different reasons and purposes for using images in the
teaching and learning process.
As teachers, we present material to the student and then encourage the
engagement of some form of interactive learning dialogue which may be
with teacher, peers or the learning material itself
Why use pictures in presentations?
Simply to make the page look attractive
To motivate the student become interested in a particular information
and therefore keen to engage with this learning experience
To provide clues to the understanding of what the lecturer might be
saying in the text
To provide opportunities for the student to discover more about the
objects, ideas and processes represented
They could provide examples and links to examples which will stimulate
the student to use images in learning complex concepts
Images could engage thinking
the giving of information - providing straightforward information -
"I know"
the support of understanding - encouraging the effective processing
of that information - "I understand
Images could engage feeling. Consciously or unconsciously we want to
influence the feelings of our students.
Crudely, this might be divided into those illustrations we use to motivate
students to want to learn and those we use to create or change an attitude.
The advertising industry of course uses these kinds of images in a very
conscious way.
Images could support doing
While we are at the presentation stage (and not yet engaged in a dialogue)
a good example of skills development is that of pattern recognition. The
provision of an image in such a way as to create the skill of being able
to recognise similar images in the future.
Use of images to create interaction. Ways in which images can promote
and support that engagement.
Informing, can become finding out
Understanding - served by a number of learning tasks - can become responding.
Doing (skills training) at the interactive level can become practicing.
Interaction, of course, also creates motivation, engagement, and interest
at an affective level
Images which will help the student to find out
This way of working encourages the gathering of information rather than
just its absorption - the student is engaged with a process of exploring
a visual universe (which may be random or hierarchical) understanding
the association of concrete objects or ideas by discovery.
Performance of learning tasks Rather than simply explore, the learning
tasks consist of requests for some sort of a response. This can be at
the level of:
Knowledge - questions such as
o True/False...
o Identify...
o Label...
o Supply the missing word/phrase...
o Select an Option... etc
understanding -requests such as
o Analyse...
o Compare and Contrast...
o Calculate
Basic technical tips of using images for presentations
Decide upon the final size for your images before taking them into PowerPoint.
Do your scaling and cropping in a photo editing application, not in PowerPoint.
This insures that the image file provides only as much information as
in necessary; thus only as much file size as is necessary.
When using multiple images in a presentation, attempt to maintain consistent
image size and shape throughout. This gives the presentation a neat, consistent
appearance and saves you the trouble of rethinking the variables for each
individual picture.
Be aware of the unique image requirements of various output media. Resolution
varies considerably: 72-100 dpi for on-screen presentations and anywhere
from 144-300 dpi - or higher -for laser, inkjet film and thermal output.
Clarity and simplicity are very important. One large picture is easier
for the audience to see and understand than several smaller ones. Just
because you can use images in your presentation doesn't mean you should
go overboard.
For large or image-intensive presentations, consider the possibility
of converting pictures to indexed colour (256 colours). This generates
a smaller file which, obviously, will increase the speed at which frames
paint up. Of course, it will also require less storage space.
Keep in mind that simplicity is essential. Busy, involved images can
be confusing and don't provide the immediate visual recognition necessary
for good speech support.
Use drop-shadows or borders to add dimension and emphasis to your images.
You can do these special effects in your photo-editing application or
in PowerPoint itself, though the variety of options in PowerPoint is more
limited.
Always keep your original image file intact. When it becomes necessary
to scale down, crop or otherwise manipulate your image, save the modified
version as a new file. In this way, you can always go back to the original
if you need more resolution, for example, to output a print. IELIT provides
files of 80-100 Kb/ 800/600 pixels
After cropping and re-sizing your images, be sure to save them in a
separate folder as BMP, TIF or JPEG files. Actually, PowerPoint can accept
quite a variety of formats, but these three are the most commonly used.
Use Guides to establish the position for images. This supports the
consistent look of the presentation and the pictures will not appear to
"move" when going from one frame to the next.
|
