Presenting Lectures with PowerPoint

Presenting Lectures with PowerPointDan McCloyUW Linguistics DepartmentSeptember 2011 TA TrainingAgendaBefore you startColor schemesSlide mastersDeveloping contentInformation densityPacing yourselfGood designTables, diagrams, and illustrationsColor SchemesAccess via the Colors button on the Design tabUse a template slide (like the following slide) to test out your color scheme choices

You can customize forever, but dont waste your time: if a pre-built scheme is good enough, use it.Color & Font Test SlideStandard text colorsn Hyperlink colorDefault table header colordefaultcellcolor1234567890Slide MastersAccess via the Slide Master button on the View tabAdjust fonts, colors, footers, margins, centering, etc.Add persistent graphic elements if desiredSome pre-built graphic backgrounds are on the Design tab.Slide Masters (cont.)WARNING!if just a single slide is selected when switching to a different master (via the Design tab), PowerPoint will switch the ENTIRE PRESENTATION to the new master.To switch just a single slide: insert a blank slide, select both the desired slide and the blank one, switch both to the new master, then delete the blank one.Information DensityDont be afraid of sparse slides:Give yourself room to elaborateTelegraphic speech or complete sentences?Telegraphic speech is faster to read, so students can focus on your lectureComplete sentences allow slides to stand alone as review materialChoice of one or the other depends on what you want the slides to doExamples: Information DensityLinguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonPressureThe air around us is a fluid (it flows).This is not the same thing as being a liquid.The air is under pressure from the weight of the atmosphere pushing down from above.Objects moving through fluids create localized changes in pressure.In a homogeneous fluid (same properties throughout), pressure changes begin at the source of movement and propagate outward spherically.Keywords are highlighted, the content is thematically cohesive, and later bullets build on earlier ones.Linguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonWavesObjects moving at regular intervals of time are vibrating.Vibrating objects cause periodic pressure changes (pressure changes that fluctuate in a repeating pattern).Such repeating patterns are called waves.Whitespace is okay! Stick to the basics, and elaborate verbally with metaphors, analogies, examples, or information that is more in-depth.Linguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonWhat is Sound?Sound is the (human) perceptual response to pressure fluctuations in the atmosphere.Technically, sound only exists in the awareness of the hearer.Only pressure waves exist in the atmosphere.In practice, however, we commonly talk about sound waves and sound pressure.This content could easily have fit on the previous slide, but works better as its own slide because the material is conceptually distinct.Pacing YourselfIn general dont spend less than 1 minute on any slideAnywhere from 1-5 minutes (or more) per slide is fineTaking notes helps many students learn better, and if EVERYTHING is already on the slide, they may not take notesHave the next days slides readyIf you finish early, you can fall back on a preview of tomorrows materialBetter: have optional exercises, demos, data sets, or audio/video files standing by to fill in extra timePacing Yourself (continued)Dont feel like you need to lecture for the whole class timeExample: for a 90-minute phonetics lecture, I plan:30-40 minutes of new material (lecture+slides)20 minutes for questions & review of previous day20-30 minutes of audio files, analysis demos, etc5-10 minutes breakGood DesignEVERYTHING on a slide is informationThink about what information should be foreground and what should be backgroundJudicious use of color, line weight, size, and italics/bold can make a big difference in how easily a slide is understood.Consonant Place Features(This chart only shows fricatives)bilabiallabio-dentalinter-dentalalveolarpalato-alveolarretroflexalveolo-palatalpalatalvelaruvularpharyn-gealglottalfvszxh+labial labial labio-dental+labio-dental labiodental coronal+coronal coronal0 anterior+ anterior anterior+ ant. ant.0 anterior0 strident strid.+strident strid.0 strident0 distributed+dist. dist.+dist. dist.+dist.0 distributed dorsal+dorsal dorsal0 high+high high0 high0 low low+low0 low0 front+front front0 front0 back back+back0 backLinguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonWhat is most important on this slide? What stands out most?Consonant Place Features(This chart only shows fricatives)bilabiallabio-dentalinter-dentalalveolarpalato-alveolarretroflexalveolo-palatalpalatalvelaruvularpharyn-gealglottalfvszxh+labial labial labio-dental+labio-dental labiodental coronal+coronal coronal0 anterior+ anterior anterior+ ant. ant.0 anterior0 strident strid.+strident strid.0 strident0 distributed+dist. dist.+dist. dist.+dist.0 distributed dorsal+dorsal dorsal0 high+high high0 high0 low low+low0 low0 front+front front0 front0 back back+back0 backLinguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonWhat is most important on this slide? What stands out most?The Power of ImageryIllustrations can take a LONG time to create, but can also make hard concepts easyPrioritize illustrations for the hardest concepts firstAvoid spending hours on illustrations at the expense of other contentUse placeholders (you can always just delete them if you run out of time)Use animation only when it reinforces the conceptSome Illustration ExamplesLinguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of Washington

Voice Onset Time (VOT)Onset of voicingStopclosureReleaseburstVOTtimeNote the color coding of the different landmarksThe Glottalic Airstream MechanismGlottalic Egressive Sounds (Ejectives)Air is trapped between glottal and oral closures.Trapped air gets compressed by raising the larynx.When the oral closure is released, a burst of compressed air exits the oral cavity, generating the speech sound.All ejectives are voiceless, and are transcribed with a diacritic added to the symbol for the corresponding pulmonic voiceless consonant: / p t k /123QuechuaVoicelesstongue[qau]bridge[aka]Aspiratedshawl[qau]large ant[aka]Ejectivetomato sauce[qau]hoarse[aka]http://archive.phonetics.ucla.edu/

Note the correspondence between images and textLinguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonEnglish /b/English /p/Cross-Linguistic Comparisons of VOTSources:Rosner, B.S. et al. Voice-onset times for Castilian Spanish initial stops. Journal of Phonetics (2000) 28, 217224.Kessinger, R.H. and Blumstein, S.E. Effects of speaking rate on voice-onset time in Thai, French, and English. Journal of Phonetics (1997) 25, 143168.-160-120-80-4004080120160 msFrench /b/French /p/Spanish /b/Spanish /p/English /d/English /t/Spanish /d/Spanish /t/French /d/French /t/Thai /b/Thai /p/Thai /p/Thai /d/Thai /t/Thai /t/ANIMATED SLIDEThis slide is animated to show each language individually, then show all four at the end. The time axis is the most important element, so it is the darkest color.Linguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of Washingtontime (ms)12345Peak-to-Peak AmplitudeThe peak-to-peak amplitude is calculated by finding the difference between the highest and lowest values of the wave.amplitude (mV)Amplitude = 2 mV123321ANIMATED SLIDEHere, the time and amplitude axes are less important, so they appear in a muted color.Linguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonRoot Mean Square (RMS) AmplitudeThe RMS is the average value of the amplitude of the wave over time.Because part of the wave is below zero, we square each of the values first to make them all positive.After finding the average of the squared values, we take the square root of the result.time (ms)amplitude (mV)12345123321

ANIMATED SLIDEAmplitude = 0.7071 mVNote that the graph did not move between this slide and the previous one. This makes the parts that ARE different really stand out.Linguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of Washingtontime (ms)12345Calculating Amplitude:Which Method is Best?Phoneticians typically use RMS amplitude because it more closely correlates to humans perceived loudness of sound.RMS is also better at distinguishing complex waves:amplitude (mV)123321same peak-to-peak amplitudedifferent RMS amplitudesANIMATED SLIDEThis slide probably could have been done without animation and been just as clearSummary SlidesSummary slides are awesome!Interim summary slides make great transition pointsSummary slides are flexible in how long you spend talking about them, depending on how short on time you areLinguistics 450/550: Introduction to PhoneticsSlides by Richard Wright & Dan McCloy, University of WashingtonSummaryFrequency is measured in Hz (cycles per second) and is a property of waves.Pitch is the percept of frequency, measured in Bark or Mels.Amplitude is a measure of the magnitude of pressure fluctuations (measured in Pa or mV).Intensity (measured in dB) is usually calculated by the root mean square method of measuring amplitude over a span of time.Loudness is the percept of intensity, measured in sones or Phon.Phase does not affect our perception of sound per se, but it does help us identify a sounds directional source.Example summary slideSummarySave time by making some decisions up front (color scheme, slide master)Pace yourself and keep the information density lowIts a lecture, not a slideshow: slides are speaker supportFocus illustration efforts on the hardest concepts, and foreground important elements using color or other design elements