Power Point

I remember when classes where conducted by using chalk and a blackboard (I guess I am dating myself there) and how visually unappealing the lessons were. Power Point on the other hand has helped us bring to life lessons and concepts that otherwise would be dull and boring. I personally believe Power Point is a great visual tool that can be used to convey a message in an exciting way with the use of sounds, videos, hyperlinks, pictures, and other eye-catching visual aids. Nevertheless, I can’t help but to think of my personal experience in some classes where the instructor has used Power Point to present material, making the atmosphere of the class not conducive of learning since we –the students- are expected to simply sit, listen and take notes rather that speak to our peers or instructor and engage in a meaningful conversation. If the teacher using Power Point is not careful, the valuable interaction between the instructor and the student will be lost. Indeed, the presentation in Power Point is better but the teacher’s skills are still more important than the visual method used to deliver the course’s curriculum. As much as I believe Power Point is a great way to enhance our curriculum, I think that this program also has some negative aspects. I believe that teachers can get stuck into this “just the main idea” factor, and forget that teaching is more than just facts given in bullets. I believe that learning requires looking at an issue from different perspectives; as well as understanding how concepts, ideas and events are interconnected with each other. Needless to say, it will take more than a Power Point presentation to achieve this. Another negative aspect is that if the teacher overuses something like Power Point, the effectiveness of the program can be diminished. If the teacher uses too many slides and with too much information in them, the material can get boring and the attention of the students will be lost. Overall, I believe Power Point is a useful tool that can add and enrich a lesson IF used properly.

Microsoft Word

I must be honest. When I heard we were going to be working on M.W. for the whole time during class I thought to myself “what a waste of time!” I am paying a lot of money for this! Please accept my apologies Mrs. S. I could not have been more wrong. I can't believe I did not know there was so much about Microsoft Word! When thinking about M.W. the first thing that came to mind was essays and research papers. If I could have described M.W. in one word, it would have been “boring”. I must admit that I was mistaken. I read the application training manual (yep, I actually read it) and checked the videos posted and realized that there is a lot more to M.W. I always wondered what computer program was my son’s teacher using to do all the fun things she has on paper. I thought maybe it is some special thing that just teachers have access to. Again, I was very wrong! It was simply Microsoft Word. I guess I never stopped to try and use all the different components of the program. I wish I would’ve because after all, you can have a lot of good information but if the presentation is dull and boring then your audience will not be interested in reading the content.

Social Media and Education

I believe that our youth has made up their mind about social media and clearly, it is here to stay. I think that as educators we must be constantly evolving, although that might mean to do things in a way that we thought it was not possible. Our job is to find a way to engage them and make the content accessible to everybody so why not take advantage of the technology they use daily and try to use it in our benefit? I feel that we must explore the potential of the available technology and media-sharing services that although not designed specifically for educational purposes, it can be used to empower students and create exciting new learning opportunities.