PowerPoint - EDED20491 Week 5 Post #1

Engagement Activity 1: A Basic PowerPoint for learning and presenting learning

PowerPoint is the most widely used presentation software in the world and this is due, in the main, to its ease of operation and simplicity. With a little bit of knowledge you can create interactive multimedia presentations - ideal for information presentation by yourself, or your students.

Undertake the this tutorial and use it to build a new presentation for one of your classes.

This is the first of three posts on the use of Presentation Tools. I have been using PowerPoint for teaching and presenting for many years. To demonstrate my proficiency with this tool I have uploaded a conference presentation to my Slideshare account and have embedded it in this blog. This Powperpoint presentation was used to deliver a refereed paper at the 2009 EdMedia conference.

Ant presentation from Jo Luck

I have been an avid Powerpoint user for many years. As a teaching tool I have used it to present work to my classes and I have encouraged my students to use it when doing presentations to the class. The students usually love to experiment with Powerpoint and always amaze me with their ingenuity.

SlideShare is a free website which allows you to upload your presentations and share them with the world. In addition to holding presentations (PowerPoint, Prezi) SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars. It is a great site to visit to look for materials for teaching purposes. For example, I searched Slidshare earlier this term and found a very informative presentation on Productive pedagogies that is embedded in one of my Week 2 blog posts. 

Powerpoint is linear tool and most people use it that way. Though I acknowledge you can use features of Powerpoint that are not linear to add variety to your presentations.

The following is a Critical reflection of using PowerPoint in teaching materials. The reflection is scaffolded using a PMI analysis.

Pluses	Minuses	Interesting/Implications
PowerPoint is available as part of the Office Suite of programs. It can be used on PCs and Mac computers. Even if you don't have access to PowerPoint you can download a PowerPoint reader for free.	Some users spend too much time creating slides and not enough time thinking about how to organise their slides to focus on what they want the students to learn.	Incorporation of many multi media forms ie, animations, videos, links to web pages,  blogs, wikis, etc Limited only by your imagination. There are a number of multimedia authoring tools that are complex and require significant learning to use but PowerPoint is fairly easy to learn to use as a multimedia editor.
Relatively easy to create and edit. Students of all ages could create something with some support and training.	The linear nature of PowerPoint slides can  force the user to reduce complex subjects to a bullet point list which may fail to demonstrate the complexity of an issue.	Informal learning is happening when they engage with the PowerPoint and learn how to use it. The skills they develop are transferable to other technologies.
PowerPoint 2010 allows more than one person to work on a PowerPoint presentation.	Teacher needs to scaffold the tasks so that the students are guided in their learning.	Not limited to using PowerPoint just for presentations. For example you can make movies, posters   and artefacts to insert into other technologies.
There are so many features that students can use this tool to make very creative presentations. For example, adding sounds, transitions between slides.	There is basic equipment required to do a presentation: a computer; and projection equipment.	3D effects are available to give an added dimension to your presentations.
There are many sites such as Slideshare which allow you to upload your Powerpoint slides so that others can access them. There are settings to restrict access if desired.	Doesn't support collaborative learning on its own. Could be used as tool to link to/from another technology.
Ability to add multimedia to link from the PowerPoint presentation.	Death by Powerpoint examines how PowerPoint can be overused and bore your audience.

Creative Ways to Use PowerPoint

Traditionally PowerPoint is regarded as a presentation tool that is used to support oral presentations. But PowerPoint can be used as a multimedia authoring tool as it supports the embedding of text, hyperlinks, audio, video and images (still and animated). 

It can also be made to be interactive. PowerPoint can be used by a small group to analyse a process, to create interaction for example by using it to create interactive quizzes both by the teacher and by the students. audiences). 

Wendy provided a very thought-provoking list of sites that describe strategies that you can use to make PowerPoint presentations much more interesting.

• Internet4Classrooms has Ideas for Using PowerPoint in a Classroom for different purposes.
• Mouse Mischief Which allows you to use multiple mouses (up to 25 if using Vista or Windows 7) in a single interactive PowerPoint.
• PowerPoint Magic has Presentation Magic created by Glenna Shaw.

Reflection on using PowerPoint in eLearning

Wendy urged us to consider the multiple uses of PowerPoint and think beyond the cliche of a tired presentation.

I think that myself and my students would probably work with PowerPoint in at least four ways:

1. Presentations by both myself and my students.
2. As a multimedia authoring tool to create images and other artefacts to use in other media, eg websites.
3. To make drag and drop activities for my students to add interest to the lesson.
4. To work together to brainstorm.

When working in PowerPoint I always need to be aware of working in a legal, safe and ethical environment. Especially if I am using it to append or manipulate images and videos of people. This would need the   permission of the students or their parents if if is to to be uploaded online. Also children should not be identified online, and any images uploaded that showed their faces should be restricted to secure online spaces only.

Pedagogy of teaching with PowerPoint

By using a microphone to record your voice PowerPoint can be used to create a narrated stand alone presentation. This means that myself and my students have the ability to record, listen, and improve the recorded narration - a benefit that is not afforded by an oral presentation or a face-to-face class. for me as a teacher this means that I can record and upload PowerPoints for students to watch at their leisure. for my students it means they have the opportunity to work on developing their spoken skills for a presentation. A luxury that would be appreciated by students whose first language is not English.

As a tool in my technology toolkit, PowerPoint has the ability to support HOTS. It is also a tool that can be adapted to suit visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners.

In my teaching context which is Technology and Mathematics I can see many uses for PowerPoint. In technology it could be used to create an interactive activity to support the students' learning about a topic. Depending on their answers the PowerPoint could link to different sections as they work their way through the activity. When teaching mathematics I envisage using PowerPoint to create games where the students get rewarded by answering questions correctly.

Of course there will also be opportunities to get my students to create their own PowerPoints for their presentations and displays. I would also encourage them to create interactive resources and incorporate activities such as using the Mouse Mischief application.

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***Tasks to complete at a later time

Engagement Activity 2: Interactive PowerPoints

Now, let's work towards more interactivity in PowerPoint. Remember you want your learners to discover, to explore, and to have control. Of course, this is as valid for presentations you learners will create for you and other audiences. Consider asking them to create a display kiosk-type presentation for the school foyer, for parents' night, for the local Council on a relevant issue.

Thus, you can use this method to create interactive resources for your students. Or you can ask your students to create interactive PowerPoints based on research and knowledge transformation to suit an audience, or even a creation such as an find-your-own-path story, or a talking storybook for a younger grade.

Tutorial 1: Create a storyboard using word (Word 2010 version)

Tutorial 2: Create an outline in Word (Word and PowerPoint 2010 version)

Tutorial 3: Create an interactive PowerPoint

 Can you identify the ways you could use PowerPoint in your classroom beyond a mundane presentation of content?

Engagement Activity 3:Creating images in PowerPoint

PowerPoint can be used to create images for a variety of purposes. Next tutorial, you will learn how to use PowerPoint to create animated movies.

1. Create a slide in PowerPoint with an images.
2. Right click on the thumbnail and select Duplicate Slide.
3. On the second slide move the image a little
4. Repeat for 8 more slides.

In the File menu, save as, and then select jpg file type. You will be prompted to save only the current slide, or all slides. Save all slides. They will be saved into a folder in the location of choice.

You have converted your PowerPoint slides into images. Very useful for students to make a collage, posters, and later on we will animate the slides into a stop motion movie.

You are not able to embed a PowerPoint into your blog, nor can you upload it.

There are two options you can consider. The first option is to create a Slideshare account and upload it. The second option is to use your Google account (already created) to carry your presentation, and link to it.

PowerPoint ideas for young learners - how do you work with early phase children in PowerPoint? Some starter ideas!

How to make a click and drag with PowerPoint.

PowerPoint can be accessible for students with disabilities - some ideas here.