Greetings,
This week we focused on the application of useful
presentation technologies like PowerPoint, Prezi, Glogster and Thinglink.
Although all have interesting uses and merits I focused my attention to the use
of PowerPoint, as in the past I viewed it as a tool predominantly created for
and by teachers. Although in the past I have witnessed students regularly use PowerPoint,
it is usually only as a tokenistic visual aid during oral presentations. This
week’s content clearly demonstrated creative ways in which students can gain
and dispense information through the program.
One idea that I found particularly interesting was the
creation of a Virtual Museum through Powerpoint. This activity is highly visual
and interactive and quite easy to create. In the context of a classroom I
believe it could be used effectively by students to create and collaborate with
their peers, whilst giving teachers a chance to assess the knowledge and
understanding of students. If I were running the activity I would scaffold by
providing students with a template of a Virtual Museum PowerPoint and
demonstrate how to customize and use the program. Students could then be given
a topic in which they had to create six displays on a given topic. Based on the
time given and assessment goals students could be give specific details in what
to include. Perhaps they would need to add images, audio, and video to the
museum display. The students would then become curators and have to decide what
was relevant and useful in their display. Once completed students would upload
their creations to a wiki to allow other students the opportunity to interact
with the virtual museum. If students had been given the same topic they could
be asked to look at a few presentations and decide what information and topics
were deemed most relevant. If students had different topics they could compare
and contrast the similarities and differences in content. For example, their
presentation could have been based around different prominent Indigenous
groups. Students could then contrast and synthesize the commonalities and
differences.
I believe this technology allows for the application of both
SAMR and Bloom’s Taxonomy. In terms of
SAMR, it has taken a basic presentation tool and allowed students the opportunity
to create valuable content that is informative to all students and allows for a
variety of perspectives. It also encourages collaboration between students and activates
higher order thinking skills. This resource can then be easily accessed by
students as a source for information and collaboration. It is also a useful
tool for teachers in terms of summative and formative assessment. PowerPoint is
here to stay.
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