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GTP Handbook / The Tutor
GTP Handbook
Using the Overhead Projector
Daniel Niemeyer, Director. Academic Media Services
Copyright ©2002, Graduate Teacher Program
The overhead projector, one of the few pieces of audiovisual equipment designed specifically for classroom use, is the most widely used audiovisual equipment in classrooms.
The overhead projector has a number of unique features that give it tremendous versatility. It is easy to operate, can be used in normal room lighting, and is used from the front of the classroom with the presenter facing the audience. A variety of materials can be projected, including silhouettes, small opaque objects, and many types of transparencies. The projected materials can be manipulated by the presenter.
Information that might otherwise have to be placed on a chalkboard during class time (outlines, for example) may be prepared in advance for presentation. Research indicates that retention of main points improves significantly when visual outlines are provided.
A landmark study found that the use of overhead transparencies has positive attitudinal effects. The Wharton Applied Research Center findings showed that "more individuals decided to act on recommendations of presenters who used overheads than on the recommendations of presenters who did not."
Overhead projection helps show relationships quickly, cheaply, and effectively. Spatial, statistical, and structural relationships can be visualized and enlarged on the screen.
Overhead projectors are available in each of the 25 media-equipped classrooms on campus. The graphics unit of Academic Media Services is prepared to assist you in the production of transparencies. AMS graphic artists can transform most Lotus, ASCII, Harvard Presentation Graphics and freelance data you store on floppy disk into full-color transparencies with its professional computer graphics system.
Quick and Easy Media Tip
Use your overhead projector to project grids onto a chalkboard, then plot your material onto the projected grid using chalk.The grid might be a "bell curve," "logarithmic scale," "map outline," "musical staff," "X-Y axis," "graph paper," or any grid that you need repeatedly in the the classroom.
A black background transparency with clear grid lines will project only the grid onto the chalkboard.
From "Media Tech Notes," Newsletter of Academic Media Services, Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 1986.
