PowerPoint In The Classroom

What's All the Hype?

Seen as the industry standard for delivering interactive multimedia presentations, Microsoft PowerPoint, almost a decade old now, is beginning to pop-up in classrooms of all levels across the nation.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool for learning in both a student and teacher-directed situation. It can add a new dimension to learning allowing teachers to explain abstract concepts, while accommodating all learning styles. Used properly, PowerPoint can be one of the most powerful tools for disseminating information ever known. Employed inappropriately, PowerPoint could potentially confuse students and make learning a difficult process.

Set the scene: Early 90's, Corporate America. A top-level executive begins to assess his/her underlings not only on their ideas, but also on their Arrangement of graphs and funny sounds that are integrated into their PowerPoint presentations. The executive pays special attention to colors, sounds, and movies being presented, all the while letting the content escape.

Set the scene: The New Millennium, Digital America. The once top level exec.- now middle manager, looks back and wonders where the innovation went in the organization.

Another victim of triple "P" (PowerPoint Paralysis)! Triple "P" can be defined as the over zealous concentration on the utilization of PowerPoint, while concurrently disregarding the content being exhibited.

Our staff agrees that triple "P" is not uncommon in the business-world. Our goal is not to allow this practice manifest itself in the realm of education. As skilled-educators, before we employ this tool in our classrooms we must realize our susceptibility to triple "P."

What No One Tells You About PowerPoint

1. You don't need to waste your money on a book to learn PowerPoint. The program comes with a complete tutorial. You can access this by clicking on the help portion of the tool bar. The web also has an overwhelming amount of well-written Articles. TeAch-nology.com has highlighted our favorite sites in the "Learn PowerPoint" section of this tutorial. This is accessible by clicking on "Learn PowerPoint" to the left.

2. There are plenty of sites on the web that allow you to access many types of different media (pictures, sounds, movies, etc.) for free. Try www.lycos.com , www.av.com, images.google.com.

3. Microsoft has made available a free PowerPoint viewer that allows you to show presentations on any computer made in the last five years. You can find download an area by visiting www.microsoft.comand type "PowerPoint Viewer" into their search engine.

4. PowerPoint makes it easy to convert any presentation into a web page. You just have to save your presentation as HTML.

5. Most schools purchase lesser-known presentation software for their staff and students due to cost. If you look into it Microsoft actually gives academic institutions that buy multiple copies of PowerPoint a reduced price. When buying 25 or more copies, PowerPoint could actually cost your organization the same if not less than other presentation packages.

What's Good About PowerPoint?

1. PowerPoint is fun to watch and fun to make.

2. Used correctly, PowerPoint can accommodate all learners' needs.

3. It has a spell-check function! Something our black boards and overheads lack.

4. It motivates students when used in moderation.

5. It motivates staff.

6. PowerPoint allows you to reflect on your lesson and correct any needed changes. Finally, you can create the perfect lesson!

7. Imagine to be able to print out what you did in class for students that were absent. Better yet, turn the accountability on to students and post your presentations on-line.

8. PowerPoint is not hard to learn. Our technology staff rates it a "B+" for ease of use. It should take about one hour to learn the basics.

What's Bad About PowerPoint?

1. Content can sometimes take a back seat to flash. Watch-out for triple "P."

2. Computers crash, networks go down, viruses can plague computers! Always have a back-up plan!

3. Overuse can bore learners and diminish PowerPoint's effectiveness.

4. Classrooms need large monitors or projectors to display presentations. Make sure your technology plan furnishes this. With simple TV-out cards or VGA-TV converters, this can be easily accomplished.

5. A successful presentation can take several hours to develop.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to enhancing learning, black boards are good, overheads are better, but PowerPoint is the best. PowerPoint is a great tool for learning, but watch out for triple "P!"

Once you start your voyage, don't forget to look back and ask yourself: "Is this making me a better teacher?" If the answer is no, see if someone else in your building can use your equipment. Technology is a lot of things, but it shouldn't take the place of well-polished traditional methods of teaching and learning. It is meant to enhance teaching and learning.

Learn PowerPoint

Below you will find a number of sites that can help you learn the basic use of PowerPoint. Be sure to thoroughly test your presentation before using them with your classes. Good Luck!

Free Resources For Learning PowerPoint:

1. Electric Teacher- A 5 part tutorial on the practical use of PowerPoint.
2. Microsoft's Offical PowerPoint Site
3. PowerPoint in the Classroom- Probably the best resource on the web for teachers.
4. The PowerPoint Ezine- An excellent ezine that covers a wide range of the use of PowerPoint. The author examines PowerPoints application and the people using it on a regular basis.

http://www.teach-nology.com/tutorials/powerpoint/

PowerPoint Tutorials

A useful tutorial on the use of PowerPoint.

http://www.actden.com/pp/

PowerPoint Resources

Some PowerPoint Resources.

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~cii/powerpoint/presentation/index.htm

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/

PowerPoint In The Classroom; Is It Really Necessary?

Have you ever asked your students how they feel when their professors bring up a PowerPoint presentation in class? For the past 3 yr, I have taught “Effective Presentation” workshops for students at SUNY at Stony Brook. During the workshops, I ask the students, “Do your professors use PowerPoint?” Based on their responses, it appears that a majority of teachers use PowerPoint. When I ask, “Does PowerPoint improve your ability to learn?”, they feel the same way about the use of this tool in their classroom as I do.

Students feel ignored in lecture halls when the instructor is focusing on the presentation and not paying attention to the class. Part of the problem is limited technology. If the faculty member does not have a remote mouse, he or she may not be able to leave the podium because of the need to advance to the next slide. This inability to move inhibits the teacher from being able to walk freely across the room and see when the students have questions. However, part of the problem is also the fact that faculty tends to focus on the technology and ignore the audience.

The students and I both agree that PowerPoint should not be used simply to demonstrate that an instructor is using technology in his or her classroom. Students' comments reveal that instructors too often focus on the technical aspects of the presentation rather than on the information being presented. Students get frustrated by PowerPoint presentations that are full of graphics and words flying across the screen while lacking substantive content.

The next time you attend a PowerPoint presentation, instead of watching the presentation, watch the audience. If the presenter is using animation (words flying onto the screen, for example), do you see the audience's heads moving to follow the words? Perhaps the presenter is using the appear feature in which the letters appear one at a time. What is the point of that? To keep your audience on edge? When used infrequently, this can be an effective tool, but at times, I have found myself wanting to leave a presentation because I was tired of waiting for the information to appear on the screen.

The students explained that they are insulted when the instructor does not recognize that they can read what is on the screen and proceeds to read the slides to the class. Reading PowerPoint slides verbatim is not limited to college classrooms; I have witnessed the same presentation style at many conferences. The presenter turns his or her back to the audience or stares at a monitor and never looks at the audience. Poor presentation skills? Uncomfortable with the topic? Perhaps, but I also think this is poor use of the technology. When being read to, I find myself thinking, “Yes, I can read that, but what is your point? Why am I here listening to you? If you are not adding any additional information to your slide show, then why not just e-mail it to me and I'll go to another session?”

When I teach presentation workshops to my students, I always discuss “Death By PowerPoint.” The students laugh at this phrase, but they also quickly recognize the reference. How many times have you attended a presentation in which the presenter has 80 slides to show in an hour and each slide contains one line of information? Is there a prize for “largest” slide show of which I am unaware?

Recently, I attended a presentation in which the slides contained so much information that I couldn't read anything on them. The text was very small, and the color scheme was very difficult to read (Figure 1A). In fact, when I looked at the slides, my head hurt. When using PowerPoint, it is important to consider the design of the presentation. What is the best color scheme? Is the font big enough? If I project this on a screen, will the last row of audience members be able to see everything they need to see? Are the images appropriate for the information I want to convey?

Recently, I was asked to speak with a group of fourth graders about my job and how I became involved with technology. I created a PowerPoint presentation in which I used images to tell my story; it included several pictures, such as a picture of my parents and a picture of me when I was in fourth grade. Without PowerPoint, I would have had to pass out the old photographs and hope that, when returned, they were not covered with fingerprints. PowerPoint can be a useful tool when it is used to display images that students normally would not be able to see or when instructors use it as an outline to keep them focused on their lectures and also give the students an idea of what to expect.

While writing this Point of View, I found this Web site,http://training.ifas.ufl.edu/deft/produce/pptart.htm, which contains suggestions for using PowerPoint. If you are curious to discover ways in which PowerPoint can be an effective learning tool in the classroom, I suggest you visit that Web site. The next time you are preparing a lecture, ask yourself, “Will PowerPoint help me communicate better with my class, or will it be a distracter for me and my students? PowerPoint is a tool; whether or not it is useful is up to you.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=520839

Beyond PowerPoint: Building A New Classroom

“… in the winter of 1813 & ’14 , during my first College vacations, I attended a mathematical school kept in Boston by the Rev. Francis Xavier Brosius . . . On entering his room, we were struck at the appearance of an ample Black Board suspended on the wall, with lumps of chalk on a ledge below, and cloths hanging at either side. I had never heard of such a thing before. There it was—forty-two years ago—that I first saw what now I trust is considered indispensable in every school—the Black Board—and there that I first witnessed the process of analytical and inductive teaching.” [May 1855]

Presentation technology has long had an influence on how we teach. In the wonderful quote above, the abolitionist Samuel J. May described his introduction to the blackboard and its impact on teaching. The quote illustrates a couple of key points: that technology has an important role in supporting classroom instruction, and that technologies perceived as beneficial to instruction will become widely adopted.

Read the continuation at:

http://classroompresenter.cs.washington.edu/papers/2004/SYLLABUS_2004.pdf

More Smart Board Lessons

http://www.ecarter.k12.mo.us/dept/elementary/fourthgrade/ccrites/etipslesson1.html

Engaging Learners The Smart Board Way

http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/