At the height of the pandemic, Christina Scheffel, English teacher at the Lycée in Delaware, was desperate for means to have the students engaged in her presentations. As a solution, it began to add embellishments to its slide presentations, including slides on the theme of the cactus with cacti borders, fonts and arrows. “Each cactus emoji that I could find was placed somewhere on these slides and I really thought it was a way to bring joy in the classroom,” said Scheffel.
The students appreciated the novelty, but later, when Scheffel asked them to recall the information of the presentation, a student said something that made her rethink the way she made all her presentations in the future. “One of my students looked at me and said to me:” All I remember the last lesson is the cacti of the slides, “she recalls.
The design of visually attractive materials, such as slides and work sheets, is easier than ever. However, Scheffel noted that too much decoration could distract learning. She invited teachers to consider the principle of representation of universal conception for learning that asks teachers to present information in a way that makes it accessible to all learners. Scheffel has provided useful advice to keep the documents in clear, accessible and focusing on learning objectives at the International Society of Technology in education 2024.
Choose a design that works for students
Scheffel stressed the importance of reducing the cognitive load, the amount of information that students can process at a given time. When the slides have too much distractions such as GIFs or unrelevant images, “we ask students to take this additional treatment step and therefore increase their cognitive charge,” said Scheffel. For this reason, teachers may want to be particularly listening to how they train slides with important information. Jeff Kilner, a specialist in technological integration for the Indian River school district in Delaware, said that he had benefited from putting the most important information in the first plan of the slides so that students have a clear idea of what must prioritize.
Scheffel has also suggested checking design choices to make sure they support learning. Teachers can ensure that the style and size of the police are easily readable for all students in the room. In addition, teachers can check whether color combinations in their equipment are easy to read using a contrast control guide.
Limit the text on slides
Slides filled with information can overwhelm students. “The brain’s linguistic center does not work this way. You cannot read the information and listen to the information and process it at the same time,” said Scheffel. “If our students are overloaded, they cannot learn effectively.” The grouping of related information can ensure that students are not invited to do or learn too much. This approach, also called chunking, allows students to move new information more easily in their long -term memory.
