An experience with Powerpoint in the classroom from Engineering

A few years ago, when I was teaching our Process Dynamics and Control course I decided to convert all of my lecture notes to Powerpoint so that I could lecture using my laptop and a portable LCD projector (classrooms weren't all equipped with projectors then). One of my goals was to use class time to do real time analysis (e.g. frequency response) and simulations of dynamic systems using specialized software that we had called Program CC as well as Mathematica and I thought that teaching using only the laptop would be less awkward since I wouldn't have to keep moving from the board to the computer (dimming the lights, pulling down the screen etc). Another advantage I saw was that my lecture notes contained fairly complex diagrams that I didn't want to take the class time to draw on the board. Also, I thought that posting my Powerpoint lectures on our departmental server would make it easier for students to concentrate on what I was talking about in class rather than focusing on taking notes. So I spent a good deal of time transferring my lecture notes to Powerpoint. Because the course is very mathematical it was quite time consuming to get all of the equations correct (I don't remember if Powerpoint had Equation Editor at the time or if I cut and pasted from Word's Equation Editor) as well as the drawing required to get the block diagrams correct.

So when I started using this method I told students that the Powerpoint presentation would be posted on the server and they should focus on the content and not worry about copying everything down. But I remember that my students came to see me and asked me (pleaded actually!) to stop using Powerpoint. They had several complaints about it. I tended to go through the material too fast and the dimmed lighting and fact that they were not taking notes made it too easy for them to doze off. But in addition, several students said that, particularly for mathematical derivations, that the process of writing down the equations in order, was a key element for them to follow the derivation and learn the material. They felt that they just didn't get the same benefit printing the Powerpoint presentations out (another whole problem in itself for our undergraduate computer lab before page limits were instituted) and looking it over. They did appreciate the real time simulations and also recognized that complex diagrams could be presented more efficiently. So I ended up using Powerpoint for much of the lecture but when I wanted to cover a mathematical derivation I went to the board and went over the derivation step by step. I still find the transitions between computer presentations and board/overheads a little awkward though.