PowerPoint in the Classroom

The pedagogy used in a classroom can have a huge impact on the engagement and success of a learning experience for both the learner, and the teacher. A common mistake that can occur is that the use of ICT can be an automatic engagement tool. I believe that the use of a PowerPoint presentation can be one of these misused tools in a classroom, or in any presentation for that matter.

Today I was introduced to a new way of creating a PowerPoint to make the content relevant, meaningful and interactive for the audience. An interactive PowerPoint is a new concept for me, which I have not before seen or used, but when I opened up the example, I was extremely impressed, therefore, decided to create my own.

The first step for me to creating my own interactive PowerPoint was to outline my storyboard. I did this in word using a concept map.I then printed this concept map out to provide me with an outline for how I would set out my powerpoint.

The next thing I did was create an outline in Microsoft Word. I had never understood this function of Microsoft Word before, however, after using, I began to wonder why I was not show this before. It made it easy for me to set out my slides, but I do think it could be quite an abstract concept to be teacher young primary students.

The final step to creating an interactive PowerPoint is to hyperlink the pages together and add the effects such as sound, images and transitions that will prompt engagement for the learners.

So what do I think about the use of interactive PowerPoints in the classroom? Well, I believe that any form of visual stimulus that will support learning in the classroom is a great way to cater for diverse learning styles. By making them interactive, I think that this also allows the students involvement in the lesson, or even sets them up to view it in small groups /individually. My experience with PowerPoints is that they should guide the learning, not be too wordy and must be directly related to the lesson they are being used for.

Let me know your thoughts.