Great multimedia classroom presentations are more than just simple slide shows with stick figure clip art and colorful backgrounds.

If they're well thought out, multimedia presentations can help teachers reach students that have a variety of learning styles. Whether you're teaching a high school biology class about cell structure or a middle school English class about the short stories of J.D. Salinger, adding a presentation to your lesson can help children at all learning levels better retain information.

Reaching students through the multiple intelligences

Educational and developmental psychologist Howard Gardner has identified nine multiple intelligences that inform how people learn and solve problems. His theory of multiple intelligences suggests that each person approaches learning by using a combination of nine core intelligences. The following table highlights Gardner's nine intelligences and lists some multimedia features appropriate to each that you can use to reach your students.

Intelligence	Characteristics	Multimedia features
Bodily/kinesthetic	Uses body, like an athlete, surgeon, or actor, to solve problems or create. Learns best through hands-on learning.	Graphics, audio, and diagrams
Existentialist	Raises questions about the meaning of life, death, and how we all look at the bigger picture.	Flowcharts, concept maps
Intrapersonal	Recognizes inner strengths and personal limitations. Very goal oriented. Maintains control of emotional state. Resourceful.	Concept maps
Interpersonal	Understands, relates to, and works well with everyone.	Video clips, tables
Logical/mathematical	Uses analytical skills to recognize patterns and order in everyday problems.	Charts, graphs, animations, video of demonstrations
Musical/rhythmic	Thinks in musical terms. Able to easily pick up patterns and themes.	Sound and music clips, animation, voice recording
Naturalist	Shows great appreciation for the outdoors and the world around them. Good at classifying things.	Charts, video clips, graphs, lists
Verbal/linguistic	Uses language or words to express emotions and communicate with others.	Text, sound, or voice recording
Visual/spatial	Visualizes mental images and learns best by looking at drawings or watching videos. Good with verbal or physical imagery.	Graphics, video, charts, graphs, drawings, color-coding

By using presentation programs, you can incorporate features that appeal to all of your students.

Putting together a great presentation

Great multimedia presentations enhance your lessons by providing material beyond the textbook. You can incorporate information from the Internet, electronic encyclopedias, or DVDs. Presentations help student and teacher focus on common topics and learning goals — especially important for reluctant learners.

Creating presentations also gives you a record of the material that you've covered, making it easier for students to revisit specific topics if they missed class or had a hard time understanding.

While putting together your next presentation, keep the following tips in mind:

Structure your presentation

A boring presentation is just as dull even with flashy pictures and comical .wav files. Most students disengage if the presentation doesn't hold their attention. Structure your presentation by following this format:

• Introduction   Get your students' attention from the start by making the main idea of the presentation clear.
• Meat of the presentation   Keep the amount of new information to a minimum, provide examples, and connect new learning to previous lessons.
• Engagement   Design your presentation to encourage discussion. Ask questions about the meat of the presentation, and have students provide examples to back up their statements.
• Closure   Recap your main teaching points, and then apply these new concepts to previous class lessons.

Choose graphics

It's easy to go overboard with graphics, but adding too many graphics can end up confusing or distracting your students. Before adding graphics to your Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 presentation, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does the graphic help students better understand the information?
• Does the graphic pertain to the text on the slide?
• What additional information does the graphic convey?

Use multimedia features

As with graphics, carefully consider your use of multimedia features like videos, audio, or animated .gif files. While these features can add style to your presentations, they can also draw attention away from the substance. Yet when used sparingly and strategically, multimedia files can enhance your students' learning experience. You can use:

• Audio to grab attention, or to demonstrate a concept.
• Video to visually carry out an experiment.
• Charts and graphs to demonstrate trends or results.
• Animation to show progress or growth.

Keep design consistent

Consistency is one of the simplest but most often overlooked aspects of a great presentation. Build each of your presentation slides using the same font style, transitions, and backgrounds. Be sure not to overload your presentation with too many distractions from the lesson — for example, blinking bullets, animated .gif files, or more than three colors or fonts.

The PowerPoint 2003 slide master tool ensures that your background, text placement, graphic placement, and transitions are the same for every slide. You can easily update the look of each slide or of a series of them by using the slide master tool.

Keep in mind:

• Font size   Size 36 or larger works best as it can be seen from the back of the room.
• Font color   Darker fonts — or light fonts on a dark background — are best for visibility throughout the classroom.
• Presentation length   Keep your presentations relatively short, ideally no longer than 10 minutes.

Incorporate elements from other Office programs

Use other programs from the Microsoft Office System to add variety to or organize your presentation.

For example, start your next presentation by outlining it in Microsoft Office Word 2003 and then sending it to PowerPoint 2003. This ensures the consistency of:

• Title placement on each slide.
• Heading levels and fonts.
• Bullet styles and format.

The following table outlines some of the features available in other Office programs that you can import into your PowerPoint 2003 presentation.

Office program	Feature to import
Microsoft Office Excel 2003	Tables, charts, and graphs
Microsoft Office Visio 2003	Flowcharts and diagrams
Microsoft Office Word 2003	Outlines, drawings, clip art, and tables