Visual Explanations

Brian McNurlen, CITES, UIUCJim Witte, ATLAS, UIUC

Students frequently criticize PowerPoint in evaluations.

• “PowerPoint lectures are boring. They just read one slide after another.” -student

Students frequently criticize PowerPoint in evaluations.

• “The instructor didn’t even know the slides had mistakes & were wrong!” -student

Students frequently criticize PowerPoint in evaluations.

• “Slides have way too much stuff…can’t tell what’s important.” –student

Students frequently criticize PowerPoint in evaluations.

• “Too fast! Too much!” -student

Students frequently criticize PowerPoint in evaluations.

• “PowerPoint allows speakers to pretend they are giving a real talk.” -Edward Tufte

Don’t let your slides become your presentation!

Students learn better when you use both text and visuals.

Decorative graphics impede learning.

Examples of Redesigned Slides

Original slides have a beige background.

Redesigned slides have white background, with New in upper right corner.

Original Slide in Beige New Slide in White

New

Innovation-Development Process

… begins with recognition of a problem or need, which stimulates research and development activities designed to create an innovation to solve the problem or need.

Rogers, 2003

Rogers identifies three major steps in the innovation-development process.

New

Heart

• Is a muscle• Circulates blood – into the heart through veins– Out of the heart through arteries

The heart is the muscle that circulates blood through veins and arteries.

Picture Credit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/connected/graphics/2006/11/28/echeart28.jpg

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Parts of the Heart

• Left Atrium– Mitral Valve

• Left Ventricle• Right Atrium– Tricuspid Valve

• Right Ventricle– Pulmonary Valve

The heart is a muscle consisting of chambers and valves.

Picture Credit: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior:Human_Body/Heart

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Branches of US Government

• Legislative– House of Representatives– Senate

• Executive– President & Vice President

• Judicial– Supreme Court

The US Constitution establishes three major branches of government.

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The US constitution establishes three major branches of government.

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Subfields of Linguistics

• Phonetics/Phonology• Morphology• Syntax• Semantics• Pragmatics

Some subfields of linguistics are largely independent.

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Peer Observation Steps

1. Planning & Prep2. Pre-conference3. Observation4. Reflection5. Post-conference

Peer Observation has five (5) steps.New

US Budget allocation

US Budget

Human ResourcesGeneral GovernmentPhysical ResourcesCurrent MilitaryPast Military

Over half of the US budget goes toward military-related expenditures.

Human Resources32%

General Gov-ernment

12%Physical Resources

5%

Current Military31%

Past Military20%

Graph Credit: http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

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Don’t let your slides become your presentation!

TVs, Computers, and Test Scores

http://www.smh.com.au/ffxmedia/2005/07/06/kidstv.jpg

Students who have TVs in their bedroom score lower on academic tests.

http://chartjunk.karmanaut.com/images/testpattern2.gif

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Using nominal dollars and omitting economic growth leads to a misleading chart.

http://perotcharts.com/challenges/

US Govt spending as a percentage of GDP has declined since the 1980s.

19681970

19721974

19761978

19801982

19841986

19881990

19921994

19961998

20002002

20042006

15%

16%

17%

18%

19%

20%

21%

22%

23%

24%

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US Govt spending as a percentage of GDP has declined since the 1980s.

19681970

19721974

19761978

19801982

19841986

19881990

19921994

19961998

20002002

20042006

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

New