PowerPoint is a simple, highly useful and engaging learning tool. In a school context, students are usually exposed to PowerPoint presentations when learning about a particular topic that contains a wide range of research/information.
It is extremely useful when participating in oral presentations as students are able to emphasize on key aspects within a topic while keeping others engaged and assisting the 'flow' of how a task is presented. Another strength in powerpoint, is that it can allow students to display visual images, add animations for further appeal and can be connected to data projecters and interactive whiteboards to enable an inclusive learning environment. Using this form multimodal designs will assist in the focus of the subject matter and therfore aid in students learning. According to the CISCO (2008, p. 13), 'students engaged in learning that incorporates multimodal desgins, on average, outperform students who learn using traditional approaches with single modes'. The animination feature however does need to be used wisely as many students can get carried away with how a PowerPoint can look rather than the content.
As part of a group, for one of my university courses, I was required to do an oral presentation on Digital Literacy. To inform my fellow peers about this topic my group decided to construct a PowerPoint. We found that this learning tool was the most appropriate way to convey key messages to our audience. We also incorporated images, quotes from reputable sources and instructions to follow in order to access specific websites. This was a successful learning experience as our audience maintained focus on the task at hand and the 'take home message' was clearly established.
Overall, I believe that this tool can enhance students learning as they become more engaged with tasks, feel supported when forming oral presentations and can connect with thier audience using multimodal designs.
Do you agree that making the power point more interactive by adding a quiz that the learners have to answer and address during the presentation itself? By adding this, the learning manager is able to gauge what the leaner has understood of the presentation being presented.
ReplyDeleteYes I do agree with you on that Charleen, the students would also be using their higher order thinking skills as they reflect on the topic being utilized throughout the PowerPoint.
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