How
diagrams help your presentation/lesson
Creating diagrams
Using diagrams as you speak
Special audience needs
How
diagrams help your presentation/lesson
On-screen diagrams help your audience by showing how how various things relate to each other or how something works. Listeners can to look at various parts of the diagram as they wish to clarify their understanding. Diagrams that build in stages can help by limiting the amount of new information at each step, waiting until everyone understands before moving on to the next point.
Diagram slides can be created in several ways. The easiest is to make your own using software such as PowerPoint. Diagrams can easily be made from the ready made shapes provided as below.
Simple diagrams can be created using Microsoft PowerPoint
More detailed diagrams can be made as in the flow chart shown below. Using 'Custom Animation' you can split the diagram into sections. This way each mouse click builds a new part , allowing you to talk about each section as you go. It can be a great help if your mouse is set up to go back a step on the right click. This allows you to reverse one stage in your diagram without needing the menu.
Flow charts help your listeners follow your reasoning
Explanatory diagrams can be created up from a scanned picture to which you add labels, as in slide of an airship below.
Label your own diagrams, note the labels on this slide could be enlarged to aid reading
If you have time and resources, diagrams can be professionally created as in the NASA diagram below demonstrating how convection redistributes heat and moisture in the atmosphere.
Professionally created diagram
It is particularly important to give your audience time to digest diagrams. Remember you have seen it many times before – they need time to explore the shapes and text and connect the various pieces of information. You can help by pointing out things or guiding them with a laser pointer (or even a long stick!).
The recommendations in the sections on picture and text all hold good for diagrams too.. For example, the labelling on the Zeppelin slide above is too small for the presenter to be confident everyone in the room can read it. If you want to include more detail, offer it on a specially prepared handout (not just the same slide replicated on paper).