PowerPoint - what is the purpose of using it ?
What I think about making PowerPoint slides is to keep it simple and make the flow of a chosen topic easy to follow. In response to that, we have to consider who audiences are and how we can close gaps between ourselves as speakers and the audiences. This indicates that speakers have to use any resources available. PowerPoint applications allow us to show varieties of materials like images, videos, and useful links, which can contribute to creating an interactive learning between speakers/teachers and audiences/students and this is my view of the purpose of using PowerPoint.
An overview of the tools
1:Access information
Google earth was introduced as a way of learning about Africa and its animals (Aldred, 2010a). While using Google earth, with its function of leading you to look at photos, students could learn about Africa and its animals as if they were able to travel to the country without having to move. The learning is on-going process, which means students are required to find out information such as location and pictures. Even if information is virtual, visible images can assist students with learning. This is why I think Google earth is an example of accessing information.
2:Organize knowledge
I would like to introduce the use of Bubble.us , which is a useful tool to organise knowledge and concepts. Brainstorming helps us to find out where to start, what are the concepts to learn, and where the learning journey goes. Bubble.us supports the beginning part of learning. It can be applied to the beginning of any subject learnings.
3:Consolidate and refine knowledge
Creating a blog individually can help to consolidate and refine knowledge in learning. Blog functions lead us to choose a title, decide a format and how long to write about a topic. Mostly, only one person can become the blog writer while many people can join each blog post by leaving comments. The former can become a process of thinking , reflecting as well as consolidating learning and the latter can become a part of realising different views, which is to refine knowledge.
4:Transform knowledge to develop new understandings
Wiki would be a strong tool to transform knowledge to develop new understandings. A Wiki web page enables us to achieve collaborative learning with its characteristics such as open, incremental, social network and so on (Aldred, 2010b). Therefore, people can just observe or edit information on the same web site. The use of wiki would be a great idea to work on a project with a group of people to create understandings. Also, a blog can help with doing homework no matter where students are.
5:Present knowledge to an audience
PowerPoint tool can play an important role. In my view, to make PowerPoint slides for presentation or uploading to share with other class peers supports the learners' understanding towards a selected topic. Then, using a wide range of applications, for example, adding images and charts and rehearsing before speaking in front of an audience can make the slides easy to understand the topic. To be ready for presenting knowledge, learners must rehearse before speaking in front of an audience. This is part of the process of using PowerPoint.
References:
Aldred, S. (2010a). Three vignettes. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning, http://www.e-courses.cqu.edu.au
Aldred, S. (2010b). Digital tool 3: Wikis for collaborative learning. Retrieved from CQUniversity e-courses, FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning, http://www.e-courses.cqu.edu.au
I totally agree with your opinion about PowerPoint slides. We need to keep slides simple and clear. This would be effective to make points for visual learners and also for review programs.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Aoi-san.
ReplyDeleteOne of my lecturers during Term 1 advised me to put minimum information on PowerPoint slides, but they have to contain necessary information of my oral speech, which was challenging for me to achieve at first. However, after taking this course, I came to the conclusion that allocation of resources(images, charts and so on) and the amount of text have to keep a good balance. Otherwise, the entire audience cannot grasp an overview of what I say.