Thursday, August 26, 2010

Power Point

After completing this tutorial for powerpoint I discovered some very interesting uses for powerpoint in the classroom that I did not know about. Before taking on this tutorial I thought the use of powerpoint was for presentation purposes only where still images were put onto a presentation with text to inform an audience and where mainly used as a teacher tool rather than student. Although this seemed to me to be a simple and easy way to present information I found it to be overused and for myself, boring.

After learning about interactive powerpoints and completing the tutorials I have come to realise the powerfulness of powerpoint as a learning tool. Through using such a digital learning tool in different ways in the classroom learners would be able to engage in deep learning supporting higher order thinking.
I believe that using such a digital learning tool as a form of assessment would engage students in deep learning and understanding of a particular topic as well as allow them to develop higher order thinking skills. How I would use such a tool in my own classroom would be to have students create an interactive powerpoint for their peers on a particular topic (example animals or climate change). They would submit this powerpoint to be marked for assessment purposes showing their level of knowledge on a learnt topic as well as their ICT skills and processes they have obtained. This would engage students in the task creating an authentic and meaningful assessment task.

If this tool was used in such a way in the classroom time would need to be taken for effective scaffolding to ensure learning gains were achieved. The Learning Manager would need to provide students with sufficient time to complete the tasks. Using a framework such as the Big 6 would support such learning with an interactive powerpoint. It is here where students would engage in a learning experience where information search and use skills with effective technology tools. Students learning would be scaffolded in a systematic process to find, use, apply and evaluate information for a specific task. Students will be given opportunity to identify information needed, use information seeking strategies, locate and access sources as well as use, synthesis and evaluate information.

I believe in taking time to scaffold and incorporate such learning experiences in the classroom would allow students to engage in a rich task where deep learning would occur. This learning would assist students to obtain the skills and processes that would enhance their life long learning.

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