We have presented many benefits of using presentations. Here is yet another benefit.
You have given your presentation and somebody asks a question. It isn't covered by the material that you are about to present at this time and it may seem like a distraction.
In traditional forms of teaching without a presentation, this may have been a problem. It would have distracted you, and you would have then have had to return to the item itself.
Not here.
With a presentation, you can respond cheerfully instead of angrily at the student. You can go on to respond to their question, even though it is a side track issue. This means that you can deal with it either briefly if you know that you're going to handle it later in the presentation or at length as you choose. You are in full control of the situation.
You won't lose your place because you have the presentation and everyone sees the presentation in front of them so everything is very clear in this way.
As a matter of fact you can even look at it in the opposite way. You can announce in the beginning of the session that it's okay to have questions and that you welcome them and ask people to please ask all of the questions that they would like. Explain to them that the presentation will hold the place so that you don't have to worry about losing the place yourself.
In addition, when someone asks a question, you can say that you are planning to handle that question in a future slide. This is important because with a presentation you can assure your students that they will indeed receive the answer later on in the presentation. This is a very effective way of dealing with questions during the learning session.
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A common problem faced by people who give presentations is the questions. That should not be a problem but it is. The problem is that the presentor loses his place, he gets flustered, he can't deal with it on the spot, he didn't prepare so he can't think of the right answer.
Perhaps the problem is that he faces a legitimate issue but he didn't really prepare a presentation slide to cover this issue, so he has to just wing it and he's not prepared to do so. In some cases the presentor handles it in a very bad way. He might feel that the person who asked the question is trying to make him look bad or to make fun of him so he answers in an improper manner in order to put the questioner in his place.
During a presentation it's bad to give a unpleasant response to anybody under any circumstances. The introduction to the presentation should have given the right atmosphere so that there would never be such a need.
However, this increases the problem with the speaker who then feels that he is uneasy perhaps future questions also become affected by this and he answers the other questions in an unpleasant manner.
This is a sure way to destroy the presentation.
An important rule is even if you are sure that those who ask the questions really do want to destroy your presentation, it is important to you as the presenter to remain calm.
Answer any question calmly. Give the answer that is needed and then go on in a calm way. Don't let it destroy the rest of the presentation.
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