minimalism [ˈmɪnɪməlɪsm], (n)

Week 6

The topics of this week are Student Centered Interactive large classes and Interactive Powerpoint Presentations. Having worked 5 years as Manager at the English Content Production department of Time to Know which is all about student centered interactive large classes I decided to focus on the part of Interactive Powerpoint Presentations hoping to learn some new tricks.

In the past, I have created many interactive ppts with multiple hyperlinks and embedded games. I therefore expected some state-of-the-art techniques but when I opened the sample show by Deborah Healey I felt cheated and disillusioned. The "interactive techniques" presented (Blank slide, ConcepTest, Think-Pair-Share, Interpreted Lecture, Rapid Reflection, QuickWrite) were not interactive at all! Or were they?

Ever since my initial viewing of the presentation, I have been thinking about these tricks and have tried them out in class. True, they do not turn the presentation into an interactive one. They do, however, change the lesson/ lecture into an interactive one instead of a one-way presentation with teacher presenting and students watching (and hopefully learning).

I used the concepTest is one of my lectures projecting a question on the screen and having students discuss this in pairs and reporting back before I continued. I also used the interpreted lecture technique in which I stopped my lecture and asked students to explain in their own words what I had just screened on the board. But what I actually liked most was the "blank slide" - just a black slide with nothing on it. It refocuses the attention on the teacher and helps create transitions between different topics. It is so simple and so effective! A minimal addition to a slideshow with maximum outcome.

"Minimalism", a term coined in the1960s is the Anglicization of the Russian term Menshevik, and means the creating Minimal Art. Minimal comes from "minimum" Latin for "smallest" and the superlative of the Latin "minor" (which is still used in English for someone underage). "Minor" itself comes from the term Latin "minus" (= less), also a term which has been adopted into the English language. So minimalism, minimal, minimum, minor, minus are all etymologically connected.

As mentioned, I have become a frequent user of the techniques mentioned above. It is actually saving me time because instead of working hard on creating interactive powerpoint slides, I work less but more efficiently on creating interactive lectures. "Less is More" goes the 19th century proverbial phrase first recorded in 1855 in a poem by Robert Browning. Do others feel the same?