In teaching, what are the advantages of using slides over doing board work?

Question

At my university, most lecturers and professors use slides in teaching. This is true for most engineering, mathematics and science courses. I am more comfortable with doing the board work and then sharing my hand-written lecture notes with the students. From my personal experience, I feel that the latter is a better way of teaching.So, what are the advantages of using slides? Why do *you* use slides?Secondly, does the answer to the above question change if you were teaching graduate students?

Answer 1

This is Finals Week and my 50 fully-online students in two University courses (Project Management and Intro to Biometrics) have used e-books and an LMS. We may have sessions for individuals/teams using Skyle-like software (note: WyzAnt also provides such tolls). So, yes, a virtual white board is dynamic based on the conversation.

Some long-ago history: My University calculus instructors used yellow chalk on green boards while we students computed values with our slide rules. One panel of the green board and one-inch squares to form "graph paper" where we would plot curves. The instructor would write, "Please do not erase" so that our partial plot would still be there in two days.

Today, that is color animation with sound. Games have had this for decades; academics are just now seeing that it can be affordable/profitable. Projected video from a computer does not need to be static "slides" and a recording of it may easily be made for students.

Now, the situation has become not 25 students for each teacher but 25 teachers for each student. Students can be taught the same thing, even at the same time in the same room, using computers that recognize their individual learning styles. Don't be shocked, but take a look at YouTube videos for CIMON, the soccer-ball size AI assistant for an Astronaut. You will soon see this capability using smart phones.

Today, there is software for creating color animated scenes with audio. It is almost criminal to force students to sit through old-style "lectures."

Amazon has a nice list of books that predict the future of College Education, online education, etc.