A Reflection on the use of PowerPoint tools in the classroom
This week the cohort has been tasked with using and
reflecting on PowerPoint and similar tools. Immediately the decision was made
to avoid traditional PowerPoint as much as possible. This is because PowerPoint
as a tool is quite old and can become very stale very quickly. However after looking
into the replacement tool for PowerPoint, Prezi, the conclusion was made that
PowerPoint is still a very powerful tool that a lot of teachers, innovators and
presenters overlook because of the stigma of “old”. However in researching this
topic, there is a conclusion that may surprise you as a teacher and educator.
PowerPoint can be used without having to give all the information. In fact, it detracts if you use the PowerPoint as an information dissemination tool. Pros et al. (2013) conducted a study whereby the purpose was to find if there was a comparable effect on the students’ learning outcomes. The results later, in the meantime how can PowerPoint be used effectively.
In the correct setting PowerPoint is a fantastic tool. In the use in churches at the moment ministers and pastors are using PowerPoint as a tool to help in worship, words of hymns and choruses, and in their ministry. Rev. Jim Brown (ret.) has used PowerPoint in his sermons for many years. His method of conveying information, however is still in the spoken word. Speaking is still probably the most important part of a ministers job, it conveys the emotional and context of a specific piece of scripture that the minister is preaching on. So what does PowerPoint do to enhance the sermon? The use of dot points and the breaking down of a scripture reading.
Most public speeches, sermons included, generally have no more than three points. So a PowerPoint of a sermon will have the introduction slide with the three key points in the sermon. Then with no more than six slides following, the points are given with sub points that the minister will preach on, and then as reference go back to the three key points of the sermon. With a conclusion slide with no more information than was presented beforehand. This allows the sermon to be remembered by the congregation better than a sermon just preached from the pulpit and focuses the congregation a little better than if the sermon was typed verbatim onto the PowerPoint.
Another example of good PowerPoint usage would be in musical lectures. The music lecturers use PowerPoint as a rolling program to their lecture or performance. Embedded with video and images with the text only being the composer and title of the composition, the lecturer can pass on most of the relevant information, very similar to a public speech or a sermon.
How would PowerPoint continue to be relevant in the classroom? By giving a class a short PowerPoint presentation an educator can introduce the class, subject, or topic. By putting in too much information the educator can turn off the class from learning, similar to getting the class to read the chapter of a text book in ten minutes, only those learners who are book worms will devour that information, most learners will skim through the chapter and not gain any relevant information.
In the teaching area of Graphics, or Industrial Design, an
educator could use PowerPoint to embed a video on how to draw a wheel cog and
then break it down in the PowerPoint as an on computer aided learning tool
which every learner could go through in their own time. Most draftsmen,
engineers and drawing professionals generally have more than one tab open at a
time, with their preferred CAD program in front of a tutorial or picture that
they are following and in many cases the Standards that they are drawing to, so
this would give learners real experience in how it would be done in a
professional environment.
Pros et al. (2013) in the study, Effects of the PowerPoint methodology on content learning, goes to study psychology students taking a class, with two groups learning the content provided on PowerPoint and two groups learning with a professor and a blackboard. Remembering that these learners are learners who want to be in this course, since most tertiary students are there of their own volition. The findings that Pros et al. found was that students who learnt without PowerPoint scored an average of nineteen percent higher than the students who learnt with PowerPoint as the main means of information dissemination.
Imagine this then being the primary way of delivering information to school students who are not always there because they want to be. If an educator was to use a PowerPoint, or even another PowerPoint-like tool, as the primary way of disseminating the information to the learners then you are going to see an even larger difference, maybe not by much but definitely are larger proportion of students and learners will be disengaged from the topic provided.
The author would like to point out that as a method of getting information across to the cadets under care of the author, that PowerPoint is used. It is very, unfortunately densely packed with information on Equity and Diversity. However most of the time the information is the same as the last weekend training event and so it is more a reminder that the cadets and staff have to follow the equity and diversity standards provided by the Navy Cadet Headquarters.
In the authors experience, when it comes to the no fraternisation rule that cadets has, it is impossible to keep cadets’ hands off each other when they have been living together for a week or two, and most of the time cadets’, being teenagers, will break that rule, that had been so clearly stated in the equity and diversity presentation.
Pros et al. (2013) introduce their study thusly:
PowerPoint is a software programme that has become a basic means of delivering presentations in both lecture halls and educational centres. Every day more than 30 million presentations are delivered with PowerPoint (Savoy, Proctor & Salvendy, 2009). More than 20 years have elapsed since PowerPoint first appeared, and since then its presence in classrooms has risen considerably. Specifically, 90% of Psychology professors at the university where the authors work use PowerPoint in their theoretical classes, and of them, almost 50% literally -185- Intangible Capital – http://dx.doi.org/10.3926/ic,370 transcribe the content that is projected onscreen. This massive presence of PowerPoint in today’s educational culture has prompted a debate on its use and effectiveness. This study aims to provide new information on the use or abuse of PowerPoint. Specifically, the main goal of this study is to compare the effectiveness of the learning among students in a class taught by a professor who faithfully follows the contents of a PowerPoint presentation compared to the same class taught with no kind of computer support, that is, only with the verbal transmission of the contents by the professor.
Pros et al. (2013) conclude:
Teachers’ actions are not aimed at mere contact with the material; rather the critical aspects of these actions lie in facilitating learning interactively. If all learning consisted of engaging with (and ultimately memorising) contents, face-to-face classes would bring no added value to the process and instead would be a costly method of engaging in contact with these contents. As Neville (2004) notes, in some cases, a presentation made using PowerPoint can serve as a guide for the listener/reader, but it is never an element capable of replacing a good teacher. What is possible is that it can be used to conceal poor-quality teaching by providing apparent validity, albeit without gains in the resulting learning.
This is important. A sensible use of PowerPoint and the tools that emulate it should be encouraged, however they are not there to replace the educator. In a perfect world all students and learners would learn everything given to them no matter the medium, however educators and teachers should be constantly trying to find new and innovative ways of integrating old tools, such as PowerPoint, and new tools, such as wikis and blogs, into the learning experiences for students.
And just because this week has mainly been writing here is Don McMillan and his hatred for PowerPoint (9 mins).
References
Don McMillan. (2009, Nov 9). Life
after Death by PowerPoint 2010 by Don McMillan. [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbSPPFYxx3o
Pros, R., Tarrida, A., Martin, M.,
Amores, M. (2013). Effects of the PowerPoint methodology on
content learning.
Intangible Capital, 9(1), 184-198. Retrieved
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