PowerPoint - Tuesday Section
Tuesday section: MD400PowerPoint… Evil?
After reading the article by Tufte and listening to the NPR segment on PowerPoint, what are your reactions to the opinions expressed? Do you agree that PowerPoint limits students? Have you encountered any positive experiences using PowerPoint within the classroom (as either a student or a teacher)? Can you think of any ways in which this computer program could be used effectively rather than negatively in an educational context?
posted by Jenn Cirino @ 11/13/2006 11:15:00 AM
6 Comments:
Katherine, I agree with your position, Power Point has too many bells and whistles and the students can't see past them. (Personally, I don't think those special effects are needed by very many users, can you imagine sitting in a corporate board meeting and watching the annual report in the style most elementary students choose!) Using Scholastic Keys Max Show helps because the choices are limited but it really comes down to a question of purpose. If the teacher's purpose is to have the students produce a computer based presentation, PowerPoint may not really be that useful. (As opposed to a purpose of having the students learn about Power Point) As I've learned more about digital storytelling, I've come to feel it may be more useful, the use of narration encourages the student to write their script. In the PP presentations I've seen, the students tend to over use text and then sit back and play their show. The presenter is as passive as the viewer. In digital movies, the presenter has at least been an active participant in the narration. PowerPoint can be a valid presentation program IF the teacher maintains control, imposing restricitons on the use of special effects and insisting the students present their material with the slide show as support rather than the other way around.
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I agree with both Kathryn & Jen. I think elementary students tend to get distracted by all the "cool" features Powerpoint has and this may limit their research on the topic they are supposed to be designing the Powerpoint presentation on. However, I think there are many more positive aspects to Powerpoint than negative ones. What is so bad about elementary students enjoying the preparation of their presentation? Maybe as teachers we need to limit the visual/sound effects to 1 per slide, 3 facts per slide (or something along those lines), but if Powerpoint gives our students the chance to enjoy what they are working on, that's great! Right? Even today, as a graduate student, I enjoy when a fellow classmate or Professor gives a presentation or lectures using Powerpoint. I find it gives the visual side of my brain a good opportunity to to see what I am hearing. I think it is a nice break and a pleasant distraction. I am all for Powerpoint!
Allison, I am also a fan of PowerPoint. This past Friday I sat through a PowerPoint presentation. I found that the bullet points helped the audience and the presenter stay on task. I liked seeing the overview of the presentation and the bullet points about items that were of great importance. It also helped me, a visual learn, remember things better. Often times I space out during presentations if the presenter is my only focal point. Though PowerPoint and other physical charts are my personal choice for presentations, I can see how PowerPoint and charts can distract and even confuse an audience. However, in these cases, PowerPoint is not the issue. The presenters poor presentation style and lack of preparation is usually the cause of confusion/distraction.
On a personal note, I’ve only used PowerPoint once as a teacher. Last year my students prepared a presentation about Martin Luther King for the entire school. Though they worked extremely hard on the presentation, it appeared flat. To remedy this problem, I prepared a slide show - using PowerPoint - to enhance their words. When the kids presented their Martin Luther King speeches to the school, the other students and teachers were captivated. The slide show, which contained pictures of them fulfilling Martin Luther King’s dream, took what started out as a regular speech to a true presentation. I know now that I could have used, Microsoft Movie Maker or another tool to create the slide show, but I truly enjoyed the simplicity of PowerPoint. Unlike students, I didn’t add the flashy colors or sounds. It was a simple, yet powerful slide show/presentation. In conclusion, I find no harm in teaching PowerPoint if it supplements learning. I do however fault teachers who use PowerPoint to substitute teaching a lesson.
-Vonick.
I always find it amusing when people write articles blaming technology for anything. There seems to be this false notion among the digital immigrants that technology somehow has a life of its own. Maybe I am way off base. But, I feel as some have said before that you can't blame powerpoint for bad presenters.
I happen to really enjoy using powerpoint to supplement a discussion. The easy of use is the real key. One can quickly assemble an ordered set of slides containing data, formulas, pictures and even charts and graphs. (If you run data into powerpoints default options of course its going to be smarmy. Get real. That is like editing your new novel with Microsoft grammer checker.) Powerpoint is an advanced presentation tool. It should be regarded as such.
PowerPoint in my opinion is not evil. At its earliest stages it allows students to organize their thoughts and present them in an organized fashion. If the teacher using the program allows the students to bullet all of their points and then read straight from the slides then the program becomes useless. The slides should be a guide not a script. If a student is instructed to use PowerPoint as an enhancement and accent to what they already have to say then it becomes more of a show.
PowerPoint's uses can be endless if the user is crerative. I've seen PowerPoint used as a Jeopardy game and although it's very laborious to put together; the end result works very well. Using PowerPoint as a quiz game can also be very engaging for students to learn from. Setting up hyperlinks within a PowerPoint learning experience can connect learners to the internet for research purposes or to aide in finding an answer to a curriculum question. Whatever the creative use that PowerPoint can be used for, it's only as good as it's master.
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