The Power of PowerPoint

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Do Our Oceans Need Saving

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Over the years since the creation of PowerPoint and other slide presentations I have seen a variety of presentations. Sadly most of them were cluttered, have unclear fonts and colours and have too many bullet points. How many times have you sat through a presentation that would have been interesting without the slides, yet you became uninterested and drift away to that beach location in your head because the slides were so intense! Having used PowerPoint before and having learnt some tips such as 'no more than three bullet points per slide', I find myself using pictures and photographs more than words. This works well if the teacher is introducing the topic, maybe a little teacher centred, but the following activities make up for this as does the discussion during the slide show with the learners.

The slide show I made did take some time, but more so the lesson idea and development than the actual slide building. I have chosen to grab your attention with the Voki, then have a brainstorming session about the problems of pollution, then the authentic collaborative work of the learners begins. Four groups with six advisers from the community need to work together to solve the problem. The same advisers would get together first to complete a task(s) to prepare them for their role. Then they would return to their groups to debate, problem solve, evaluate and eventually complete a report on their finding on their allocated Wiki page. The Wiki forum may be used for these advisers to stay in touch to continually exchange ideas. The report on the Wiki page would be in a template, then peer review is encouraged, leading to the final video or audio slide show presentation (which ever they choose as a group).

If you know your students learning preferences the first group tasks for the same advisers may be organised using multiple intelligences (Gardner 1993).



Having six advisers I would choose activities like mind-mapping, creation of newspaper report, create a timeline for cause and effect, discuss and record their personal feelings, organise a simulation and plan how to save the world! Can you work out which intelligence and advisor matches which task?

When the students use slide show presentations to present or solve problems there is an attraction for the visual and logical learners and, looking at Dimension of Learning 2 - Acquire and Integrate knowledge (Marzano, R & Pickering, D.1997), would help to organise declarative knowledge (what you know) and shape procedural knowledge (what you can do).

PowerPoint can be used to address students on a blog or Wiki, to provide information or ask questions. If clutter and tiny fonts can be avoided, then the multimedia aspect used with an authentic base, has to be a good tool to use in education.

Cheers
Johanna

References
Russell-Bowie, D. (2009). MMADD about the arts!: An Introduction to Primary Arts Education (2nd ed.). Frenchs Forest, NSW, AUST: Pearson.
Marzano, R & Pickering, D. (1997). Dimensions of Learning: teacher's manual (2nd ed.). Alexandria : ASCD.