Powerpoint...Yay or Nay?

One of the things I really liked about the presentations was the use of videos within the slideshows. Dustin's video of "Please excuse my dear aunt sally" was effective in getting students to remember the information and entertain them at the same time. I had the song stuck in my head all throughout class, which was annoying, but it probably won't be something I forget. Music is a really effective way to get students to remember things and I think it needs to be used more in classrooms. Jessi also had a number of great videos (which we didn't watch but I've seen before) that incorporated music.

Throughout the presentations, I noticed that a number of people turned around and spoke directly to the board while presenting. I feel like this really removed me from the presentation, and also made it difficult to hear the speaker. I think the main reason that people did this was to point out a word/spot on the screen. This would be eliminated if the presenters had a laser points or long pointing stick like many teachers do have in the classroom. It's hard to show students where to look without these tools. I also noticed that a few people had their information come flying in from off the screen and I found this to be distracting, but that might just be my individual preference.

After watching some of the other presentations, the only thing I would have changed is to practice a little more and run my presentation beforehand on the presentation computer. I was sad that my drum roll didn't work! I think this just showed me how important it is to be prepared when giving a presentation within a classroom. Students notice mistakes and can be distracted by them.

I personally am not a big fan of using powerpoint presentations in the classroom. While I think they are effective tools for corporate/collegial presentations, in my experience they do not work well with younger students. Part of this is that teachers often use Powerpoints incorrectly, trying to get too much information on each slide, or creating bright, distracting slides. This causes students to be distracted, or to just copy down what's on the slide and pay no attention to what is being said. As a teacher, I might use powerpoints very sparingly, but would intersperse them with other methods of presentation. I do, however, like Powerpoints for showing photographs in the classroom.