Chapter 9 Expressing Creativity with Multimedia Technologies
Focus Question: How can teachers create PowerPoint presentations for maximum teaching potential and learning impact?
PowerPoint Presentations:
A PowerPoint used to be a unique way to show work and get students interested in learning. However, now most PowerPoint presentations are dull and boring. Some teachers now use a PowerPoint to have students copy notes off of. This is extremely boring for the students and if the teacher doesn't go over the content then the students learn nothing. There are other teachers who make a PowerPoint and go over them but they read directly from the slide. The slides of the PowerPoint are not meant to be directly read off of. Students are fully capable of reading the slides themselves and having you read them to them may be insulting to some of your students.
A PowerPoint presentation is meant to engage your students in what they are learning. One of my professors uses a PowerPoint for every class but she never reads directly from the PowerPoint. She has her own side notes that are not on the PowerPoint to help her keep track of her thoughts. By her doing this it lets me know that she really knows what she is talking about because she doesn't have to read directly from the PowerPoint and fully knows the content that she is going over. I never know what she is going to say so that also helps to keep me interested in the content she is going over. There are so many ways to make a PowerPoint engaging and interesting. There are different themes that can be used in PowerPoint. You can also add animations, sounds, videos, and pictures. You should always try to keep your students interested because if they are not interested then they won't learn anything.
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| Photo Credit to: p_a_h on Flickr |
There are 3 essential tools a podcast requires. These are a voice recording microphone or digital voice recorder, audio recording software and a site for posting and distributing podcasts. First you need to be able to record you content. There are different ways of doing this which includes a microphone built in to your computer, a digital video camera, or a digital voice recorder (these are not the only options you have). Once you recorded what you want to record you need audio recording software to eliminate unwanted or distracting material. An example for Mac computers is called GarageBand. Another example for both Mac and PC machines is called Audacity. Once your podcast has been recorded and edited it's time to distribute it. There are many ways of doing this which includes listing it on iTunes, using PodOmatic (this is a free posting site for podcasts), posting them on your own website, or you may also be able to post podcasts on the internet server of the school system.
Summary:
A PowerPoint can be a very useful tool to use in the classroom but teachers need to be careful of how they use them and when. There are certain times using a PowerPoint in the classroom is pointless and will benefit the students in no way at all. When using a PowerPoint teachers need to make sure that the students are understanding the content and are not bored out of their mind. A student that is bored will not remember a thing you were talking about. However, if you can keep your class interested in what you're teaching using the PowerPoint then you've done your job.
Resources:
Textbook - Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
I wonder how you intend to use PowerPoint in your future classroom?? Will you include multimedia and images that enhance your content and help students associate a visual with the concept/idea? It is not an easy task to create a good PP, but both teachers and students can glean value when there is an effective and purposeful presentation. And, it is really valuable when students create their own to demonstrate their learning! :)
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