PowerPoint
PowerPoint is a widely used and very powerful presentation tool. At its simplest form it is a means of staging information in very succinct and aesthetically pleasing way. At its best, PowerPoint can engage learners with a self-paced lesson filled with interactive slides. The versatility of PowerPoint means that it can accommodate a variety of learning styles in the same lesson. Information can be presented visually in text and pictures. Students can follow embedded hyperlinks to go more in depth in a subject or skip over material they are already familiar with. This makes PowerPoint a technology that becomes individualized to each unique learner. Additionally, PowerPoint can be used to create on line learning games and quizzes. These can help teachers check for understanding at the end of a unit or understand prior knowledge before a lesson.
I would use PowerPoint in both manual arts and business. I could do a PowerPoint on a particular project, with each slide containing the description of the task needing to be done, with links to greater detail on how to accomplish the task. Manual arts often repeat the same project for different classes over several terms, and once an interactive tool is created it would be useful for multiple classes. This tool could be very valuable in the classroom where a teacher often has multiple questions to answer at the same time. Having an interactive instrument available to provide guidance to some students could have positive effects on maximizing the effectiveness of the teacher to achieve positive outcomes. As a business studies teacher I believe PowerPoint could be used in many of the same ways. My previous experience with PowerPoint was mainly as a presentation device, but after undertaking this brief examination of the wider potential I am very excited by the potential of this tool to positively impact my teaching capabilities.
The only real downside I see with PowerPoint is not using it to its potential, that and poorly executed presentation slides. Most students are already familiar and comfortable using PowerPoint and I cannot imagine a school that could not support the technology. The use of this tool would not raise any legal or ethical issues beyond those that are already inherent in a normal school environment.
Prezi
I believe Prezi could be an effective tool for engaging students by presenting information in a more dynamic way. The visual aspect of Prezi would be very useful for engaging visual learners. Linking Prezi to a graphic organiser like a mind map would be a powerful way to promote metacognition. Prezi provides a visual demonstration of the relationship between words or concepts. Creating a Prezi requires the user to classify the components and understand the relationships with a linear path connecting correlated ideas. Having the students use Prezi to create a mind map would promote higher order thinking and provide an assessment tool that would allow a teacher to effectively check for understanding. The creation of a Prezi requires a student to organise words and possibly images, and then calculate significance by assigning a text size. Creating an appropriate sequential path will also necessitate the use of higher order thinking.
I found creating a Prezi the first time to be a somewhat challenging activity compared with other programs I have explored. I needed to watch the tutorial several times and had to continue to refer back to it to create my presentation. I found adding digital images frustrating because only some of the pictures in my files were available. There did not appear to be a reason why some were available and others were not. Additionally, when I went to add a soundtrack, Prezi would not recognize any of the files I have stored in iTunes. Despite these setbacks I would still experiment with and use Prezi in both business and manual arts. Before I asked my students to create a Prezi, I would want to increase my proficiency with this tool. I do not feel that I currently posses the capabilities to adequately assist my pupils with the implementation of Prezi.
I believe Prezi would be an excellent way to present the information that has been compiled for a mind map. My own Presi was basically a mind map of the break-even point in business accounting. Using this tool helps demonstrate the links between costs and profit in a visual way. The path the presentation takes illustrates the importance of understanding fixed and variable costs and their impact on the point at which a company or product makes money. It is certainly possible to explain this concept other ways, but I feel Prezi contributes a visual element that would help students actually ‘see’ the links. I believe a discussion of the concept would then more easily assist students in comparing fixed and variable costs and then analyzing the effect they have on profitability. Using a digital recording that plays during the presentation could add further stimulus to engage learners.
Plus | Minus | Interesting |
· Effective tool for visual learners · Promotes metacognition through; organizing, sequencing, relating, correlating, ordering · eLearning tool anytime anywhere · Promotes visual linkages | · Could become over-used · Not overly user friendly · Not compatible with some applications. · Can be frustrating for first-time users | · Different than a normal PowerPoint · Useful in any subject area · Easier to add music than with PowerPoint |
I believe the use of Prezi in and of itself creates no additional ethical or safety issues than what are normally found in dealing with ICT’s in a learning environment. I have embedded my press on my web page here I will attempted to embed my Prezi into my blog but have been unsuccessful. I am unsure if it can only be embedded once or if I have just not tried the right combination of commands to make it work
Glogster
I had no previous experience with Glogster and had not even heard of it prior to this activity. I followed the online link to the tutorial covering Glogster and created my Glog. I have noticed that the scaffolding for the activities has become much less structured and is no longer prepared specifically for this class. Early in the coarse there were clear tutorials often done as imbedded video, the last few tasks ask us to follow a link to a generic tutorial. I find that I am less engaged with the material this way. This is something to make note of in my own teaching, as it seems to indicate a level of importance. I do not believe this is necessarily true in this class, but that is the feeling I have. Perhaps because of this I was not that impressed with Glogster. I also think I am reaching saturation point on all the new technologies and I am having some difficulty keeping them clear.
I found Glogster easy to navigate and very user friendly. It is billed as a ‘collaborative learning platform’ although it appears to require a paid subscription to really make it collaborative. I am unsure if a school would have or want to obtain a paid subscription. I am unsure how secure the platform is for protecting the privacy of students and would definitely wish to have the schools IT person investigate this site before I would be comfortable having children enroll on it.
From my perspective, I am not sure how Glogster is that much different from other programs like PowerPoint. I found it entertaining and it does seem like an online scrapbook page, but I do not see how it is a better tool for achieving learning outcomes. Glogsters entertainment potential could be its downfall. It is easy and fun to play with the fonts and add pictures but these activities do nothing to promote higher order thinking. I think students might get carried away playing with the features and not engaging with the relevant material. In primary this might be a part of the desired learning outcomes, but in secondary the features could distract from the learning.
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