Week 5: Slidecasting

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The fact that audio can be linked to a PowerPoint presentation is not something I have ever given thought to, but it makes perfect sense and can allow students to access classroom content asynchronously from home. One way I feel this would be a great tool is to give students review assignments over the weekend to complete in preparation for a test.  Perhaps on Sunday, or the night before students are taking the test, you could make a PowerPoint going over the answers to the review activity so that students will have an opportunity to check their own understandings or misunderstandings before the assessment.  Students who are struggling but do not have time to meet with the teacher prior to the assessment could possibly benefit from this type of review presentation. Also this tool could be used for students who are sick or absent from school so that they could catch up on the material with the rest of the class.  Often when students are out of my class I do not have the time to sit and go through the lesson with them as I did my students whom were in school; its just not feasible due to time constraints.  This type of presentation is an alternative.

Like Mark Isseks points out in his article entitled "How PowerPoint is Killing Education", PowerPoint presentations are in a lot of ways one-sided and do not promote critical thinking or even "thinking at all" on the part of the learner.  Therefore, it is important when making a PowerPoint to make it your own and use it as a teaching resource rather than an encyclopedia of bulleted truths about content.  PowerPoint can be a good teaching tool if it makes its subjects think by asking them questions and engaging them, rather than just having them copy information apathetically.  I think that minimizing an entire topic or content area into a set of bullet points takes all of the creativity, passion, and excitement out of learning something new.

Lastly, I found Don McMillan's comedic sketch about "Life After Death by PowerPoint" entertaining and comedic because I can relate to all of the different PowerPoint criticisms that he mentions in his presentation.  I have sat through a presentation that showed graph, upon graph, upon upside-down graph, and I've been the student struggling to copy down all 500 words on each slide of a cramped, wordy PowerPoint presentation.  McMillan highlights the fact that using technology just to use technology really defeats the purpose.  PowerPoint is supposed to enhance teaching by clearly organizing information and making it accessible to different learners in the class, but when used improperly can be confusing, boring, and excessive.  I believe that teachers need to find the right balance in integrating technology in the classroom, and only use it when it is appropriate and implemented correctly from both a pedagogical as well as a common sense perspective.