Blog Post #7

I think that one of the biggest advantages of using presentation software in the classroom is that it allows students to see visual representation of the material they are learning. PowerPoint allows teachers to add graphics, charts, graphs, and videos to their slide shows in order to enhance their presentations. Also, I find PowerPoint very advantageous for creating review games such as jeopardy. It is a fun, interactive way to make sure students retain information. One disadvantage I see for presentation software involves use for elementary aged children. Often times slide shows are presented in a lecture style and that is not particularly effective for younger children as they have very short attention spans.

To help students remember factual information, the easiest way to incorporate PowerPoint is to created organized, bulleted slides. Students can take notes and highlight phrases that are particularly important. For conceptual knowledge, it would be very important to include flowcharts or graphs so students can understand the relationship between items. Finally, teachers can use PowerPoint to support student learning at a procedural level by using graphics, sound, or a video to tie everything together. For example, if presenting a science lesson, one could use a video to show the step by step procedure cell division.

One educational technology topic I find particularly interesting is classrooms where the teacher is not physically present, but teaching over a video from a different location. This is becoming more common over recent years in colleges because it allows professors to teach larger numbers of students from various places. I have never been in a class like this nor do I know anyone who has but I am not sure if it is a great idea. I feel like communication between students and professors would be very difficult since it cannot happen face to face and it seems that there would be less opportunities to get help if necessary. I would like to know if students grades are generally no different than their counterparts who physically see their professor or if they tend to fare worse.