PowerPoint in the classroom

Advantages of PowerPoint

• Students are able to receive slides in advance to prepare for class
• Slides cannot get lost
• Presentations can be easily refined and reused in following years
• Are flexible and suit all situations
• Easy to modify
• Can have hyperlinks to important websites
• Presenters are able to print notes so they are able to remember points
• Allows the presenter to face the audience
• Makes lessons more interesting
• An excellent teaching tool for visual learners
• Is able to be used at all levels of education
• An alternate way for students to present reports or projects

Challenges

• To much information can be placed on a slide
• Audience can become bored if to many slides are used
• Animation on slides can be over used
• Audience attention can be drawn away from the presenter
• Making PowerPoint presentations can be time consuming
• Can be confusing for some students to use

The interactive PowerPoint that I made can be located on my Wiki site:
http://debedmonds.wikispaces.com/

The making of this PowerPoint presentation was exciting as I had previously only made the traditional slides. I was unaware that PowerPoints could be interactive and found designing this an opportunity to extend my own learning.

References

http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/ppedu.html

http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech013.shtml

http://www.aare.edu.au/01pap/ho01072.htm

http://www.skillsheets.com/docs/F-Presentation/F5_(Dis)advantages%20PowerPoint.pdf

As you can see the advantages out weight the challenges but I am sure there will be other points that I have not yet considered.

 

Learning Framework - Bloom's Taxonomy

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom led a comittee of colleges in identifying domains or categories of educational activities. These domains were

• Cognitive - mental skills (knowledge)
• Affective - growth in feelings or emotional areas (attitude)
• Psychomotor - manual or physical (skills)

Bloom's Taxonomy follows the thinking process of humans. Before a person is able to understand a concept,they first must remember what had been taught. Therefore knowledge cannot be applied if the concepts were not first understood.

In the mid-nineties a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson revised the cognitive domain in the Learning Taxonomy. The two main prominent changes were

1. changing the names in the six categories from nouns to verbs
2. rearrange the wording slightly

Below is a diagram illustrating these changes:

http://edtechvision.org/?p=123

The Bloom's Revised Taxonomy is believed to reflect a more active form of thinking.

As educators move into the 21st century technology and othe forms of ICTs are becoming more prevalent in classrooms. to cater for this change Bloom's Taxonomy as be revised to become Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. This now includes verbs that relate to all forms of technology.

http://lifelonglearnerrhonda.wordpress.com/tag/educational-technology/

Advantages

• relevant to all types of learning
• concepts which mske up Bloom's is relevant for planning and design in all educational levels
• serves as a template for evaluation

The diagram below demonstartes how the Web 2.0 tools fit within the domains of Bloom's Taxonomy.

http://www.usi.edu/distance/bdt.htm

As this information shows how every KlA  and information taught to our future students fits within Bloom's Taxonomy fits.

References

http://www.businessballs.com/bloomstaxonomyoflearningdomains.htm

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html

Concept Map

Bubbl.us

Plus

• Able to create a presentation by organising information in a logical format
• Allows for quicker interpretation of information
• A visual mode for presenting information
• Demonstrates how components relate to each other
• Assessment tool
• Enables students to illustrate the knowledge they have gained in a subject

Minus

• Teacher/Instructor must learn how to use and teach this technique
• Students need to be taught how to construct a concept map

This process may take large amounts of class time to achieve the desired outcome.

• Complex relationships shown on a concept map can become difficult to interpret

Interesting

• This style of learning is appropriate for all year levels in schools.

References
Ehlen, P. (2010). Disadvantages of a concept map. Retrieved from

http://www.ehow.com/list_6749212_disadvantages-concept-mapping.html

Martin, V. (2010). Advantages of a concept map. Retrieved from

http://www.ehow.com/list_5824456_advantages-concept-mapping.html

http://www2.etown.edu/bap/Resources/conceptmap.pdf

My First Blog Entry

Hello Everyone
Preparing to post this has come with much anxiety. Being familiar with computers I thought this was going to be easy but it has been a daunting process. Now that I have finally overcome my fears it is not that hard.

As I have slowly worked my way through this process I have come to realise the potential this tool has in a classroom. Blogging would be utilised mainly in upper classes but a has the potential to be used in the middle classes. In the classroom Blogs are able to be included into formal ICT lessons. These lessons under supervision and precise guidelines would enable student to become familiar with the basics of this tool. Students would be able to take these skills learnt and apply them to the home as well.

Having access to this tool at home allows the student to post any questions, suggestions, queries and concerns they may have when working on assignments or other prescribed tasks. This allows an opportunity for some students who are not comfortable asking questions to place their concerns on a Blog in the safety of their own surroundings. Blogging provides students with an alternate way of receiving and delivering information when being absent from the classroom for an extended period of time. Having this tool available may help the student to feel connected to the class though they are not physically there.

As we move further into the 21st century the students that will be in our classes will be techinally savy and using the Blog as a communication tool will help to engage these students and to improve their learning.

Debbie