Science talks: Board & Chalk, White Board or Projector?

[ajb]

Simple question really. What is best when giving a scientific talk, such as a group seminar?

 

1) Blackboard & Chalk,

2) White Board,

3) Computer, Overhead projector & Beamer.

4) Something else(?)

 

I think, based on my own experiences the board & chalk approach is best. It gives one the chance to explore things guided by your audience and the pause due to writing gives them chance to take it in.

 

Downside can be poor writing on the board.

 

What do you think?

[swansont]

Computer/projector for a seminar. Board and chalk for a lecture. Not fond of whiteboards.

[insane_alien]

there was a cool thing in my highschool(only installed in my last year there)

 

it was a mish cross between whiteboard and projector. you wrote on it with a electronic pen.

 

there was even a program that would animate what you drew like those little physics programs so you could draw a car and a sloping track for it to go down and it would actually roll down the track.

 

i imagine this ould have more mature applications as well.

[Mokele]

It depends on the topic. Powerpoint is invaluable for what I study, because it takes 10 minutes of scribbling on the board to show the audience what a 10 second video clip can show.

[iNow]

My preference is for something like I_A mentioned. We have whiteboards which allow us to connect remotely with audiences in other countries... They see on their computer screen from afar what is being written on the whiteboard locally. Also, these boards have the option of printing out what is written. This is really very nice to have a record of how the conversation evolved. The board itself rolls around and there is a scanner which captures an image of the board, and the system them reproduces/prints the image on to some paper below. That's certainly my preference when delivering a class or chairing a meeting.

[Mr Skeptic]

For some things, a projector is quite necessary, unless you want to make real paper slides yourself of have a very patient audience (and good knowledge, of course). A whiteboard is nice too, but only if you use a good marker. You can project onto a whiteboard, though that is not as nice as a projection on a projection screen.

Edited November 28, 2009 by Mr Skeptic
powerpoint -> any projector

[ajb]

Powerpoint I do not like, it is difficult to produce nice equations. I have produced slides before using LaTex, the macro beamer comes highly recommended.

[insane_alien]

ajb, try openoffice impress, you can export it as a powerpoint file and its a bit easier to use (IMO) to powerpoint. and it has some nice equation editing tools.

[CharonY]

Depends on what you want to talk about. Most of the time I use Powerpoint with a tablet notebook so that I can scribble when there is need (I tend to hand write formulas). It really depends on the topic, and audience, though.

[ajb]

ajb, try openoffice impress...

 

I have used it before, the maths was ok but not brilliant I then exported as a PDF.

[insane_alien]

oh well, everyone has their preferences.

[timo]

Of course in theory that depends on field, topic, audience, message you want to get across, ... . I don't see me doing anything but beamer (slides, perhaps some live simulations) or transparencies (if there is no beamer), soon. For math where the (details of the) calculations might be more interesting to the audience blackboard is probably also appropriate. I do not really see the difference between a black- and a whiteboard except that on a whiteboard there's better chance to have a readable hand-writing.

 

If you're doing a statement->proof->next statement-> next proof->... type of talk then having the statements on a transparency shown during the whole talk and doing the details on the blackboard sounds like a promising idea. Particularly if some of the earlier results are re-used later on (speaking for me, I am never able to follow a talk in which a result from two slides ago is used unless I knew that result before the talk, already). Just an idea of mine, though.

[ajb]

If you're doing a statement->proof->next statement-> next proof->...

 

As a lecture of part of a lecture series maybe, but never for seminar or colloquia.

[CaptainPanic]

The most important is to know what knowledge you want to transfer to your audience.

 

Both board and projector (powerpoint or overhead) can get great results if used correctly.

All can also result in a boring and incomprehensible talk about nothing.