Like any other teaching aid, PowerPoint can enhance or detract from your teaching.  Remember, you are trying to have students acquire, understand, and be able to use the knowledge and competencies from your class. 

Here are some tips for effective use of PowerPoint:

• Give an overview of what you will present in the class session, along with 2-4 main ideas you have for their learning.  This helps students understand where you are headed and can help them see how the main ideas relate or flow from class to class.


• Keep your slides simple.  Prioritize your presentation with the most important concepts and then flesh out the specifics during class, orally and visually.  Not only are slides that contain too much information hard to read, but students cannot sort out what's most important and you end up losing their attention.  


• Keep your attention primarily on the students, not the PowerPoint.  You want to remain alert for questions, comments, and signs that the students are confused.


• Engage your students.  Write discussion questions into the presentation every few slides.  Stop at the point you reach the question to give the students a minute to think or write about the question.  Consider taking a couple minutes for students to talk to their peers about the question and reporting back to the full class.  


• Make copies of your PowerPoint presentations available before class so students can download them and use them as a framework for taking notes.  Remind students that they will still need to take their own notes.  (A reminder: be mindful of copyright issues when distributing your slides.)


• Be careful of your pace when you use PowerPoint.  Since you are not writing as much down, it is easy to move too quickly for the students.  Remember, if you want them to think about something, you need to give them time to do so.


• Avoid using complex backgrounds for your slides, lots of colors and fonts, or loud sounds.  You aren't trying to "wow" them, you are trying to help them learn.  Many people find complex backgrounds, special effects, overuse of colors, and noise very distracting.

Final Thought:
Think about your intentions, your class size, and your course subject.  Is PowerPoint the most effective tool to help your students learn in this lecture, lab, seminar, and/or recitation?  Strive to match your vision of the classroom environment with the learning activities you construct.