Teaching With Powerpoint
The software tool, Microsoft PowerPoint is one of the most
versatile tools that the huge software giant has given to us. Business has already discovered the power of
this amazing tool. But there are a lot of lessons plans that would benefit from
the tools and resources that PowerPoint can offer to make your lessons more fun
and interesting for your students. But you have to know how to use it for
maximum advantage even before you start designing your slide slow.
Almost everybody has seen PowerPoint used and witnessed what
a fun and creative presentation tool it is.
You can take classes to learn how to use PowerPoint and to tap the power
of the amazing animation and graphics tools it has to present information to
your students. This is why PowerPoint is
such a great tool for teaching. It gives
you the chance to supplement what might have been a boring lecture with some
colorful and quickly moving slides that will keep your kids riveted throughout
your presentation.
PowerPoint is also easy to use. The genius of Microsoft is that they do
facilitate us in using this great tool by making it so easy to take advantage
of all of PowerPoint's fantastic tools.
In a classroom setting, PowerPoint alone could represent one of the
biggest revolutions in how to present information to students in a long
time. But it’s a good idea to think
through how to use the tool and have some ground rules for how to use it so you
get the maximum value from PowerPoint without becoming abusive of its powers.
When designing the way you will use PowerPoint as a teachingtool, don’t give in to the temptation to let the slideshow do all the work of
teaching for you. Remember that
PowerPoint is great as long as it is a supplement to your lecture or
presentation to your students. The best
kind of PowerPoint slide presentation uses bullet triggers to take you through
your lecture but you do all the work of actually teaching your students. When
it comes to putting a large amount of
information on a PowerPoint slide, in a word, don't. This will lead to reading the slide
presentation to your students which will become boring causing you to lose the
"punch" you hoped PowerPoint would bring to this lesson plan.
Another tip when working with PowerPoint in an educational
setting is to never turn your back on your students. You need to have eye contact with them at all
times when you are teaching. So know
your presentation well so you don’t have to turn and look at the screen during
the course of the lesson.
PowerPoint gives you the ability to use a timer fiction so
the slides change on their own after a set period of time. This is a slick function but one that few
actually use. And in your setting of
trying to integrate PowerPoint into your teaching, you should avoid the timer
function as well. The only way this
function can work is if you are in a teaching situation where there is no
chance there will be an interruption or a delay. And since in a classroom setting you can almost guarantee interruptions in
your presentation, the timer function then would become your worst enemy rather
than a good tool to help you.
Maintain a consistency to the design of your PowerPointslides. This means using one single
color or background scheme for the entire show.
Consistency also applies to the motion of bulleted lists. There are dozens of presentation styles for
bulleted lists that PowerPoint supports.
You can have your bullet points fly in from the side, bounce in or fade
in from nothing to something and then fade away again.
Post a Comment