The truth: there exist some teachers and students out there who are oblivious to technology. But bless their hearts, they certainly do want to try, don’t they?

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so annoying if they would just give up and move on to the lesson, but there are times when teachers become insistent on showing a PowerPoint presentation or movie clip that it becomes a bit obsessive and takes up a significant amount of the class period.

What’s the moral of the story?

Teachers­­­—if you expect us to be prepared before we come to class then we certainly expect you to know how to use your teaching tools before you use them in class.

It should be understood that a PowerPoint has a decent chance of being a complete waste of time.

The following list offers a few suggestions from the 12 Commandments of PowerPoint Presentations. Susan Buchholz and Jill Ullman of Purdue University, Calumet, Ind., compiled it.

1. Thou shalt not put War and Peace on a slide. Too much text on a slide makes it difficult for a learner to both see and process information.

2. Thou shalt not use fonts smaller than 28-point. Do you need bifocals to read slides on a huge projection screen? Why make the learner squint?

Not only is that irritating, but it can cause eye fatigue, and viewers miss important information.

3. Thou shalt not read the slides word for word. If all the learner needed to do was read the slide, you would be unemployed.

4. Thou shalt not use slides alone. One or more hours of nothing but talk and PowerPoint slides would bore anyone.

5. Thou shalt use animation, audio and pictures in moderation. While animations work well for the Cartoon Network, you don’t want your audience to focus on the bombs bursting in air and flags waving.

6. Thou shalt practice. Don’t go in cold and fumble. PowerPoint is only a tool, one you need to use with poise and confidence.

Perhaps the opposite of trying to use technology as a teaching aid but not knowing how to use it is knowing how to use technology but not using it.

Blackboard is a great tool that should be used more often. By using Blackboard students can receive information presented in class, are able to see their current grades and teachers can encourage independent learning.

Yet e-mail and Blackboard are still struggling to become accepted as common practice. We encourage students and teachers to learn how to use technology appropriately and whenever possible.