Higher Learning

            So, I have just completely finished my essay that is due today.  I put the final edits on it this morning.  I would have to say that I did learn a lot from it and it was quite an interesting paper to write.  I wonder if there’s a way to link our papers on to this website somehow.  We should also try to put our digital imaging photos on here too!

            Anyway, now to the point I’m really going to talk about – and that point is PowerPoint.  I thoroughly enjoyed our technology task for last week.  I thought that it was just great.  Then I got to thinking, why did I like it so much?  Was it because it was step by step and really quite simple?  Was it because it gave me a starting point, something to work with to further explore the possibilities of PowerPoint?   I would have to say that I really enjoy being able to experience technology independently and not have someone tell me exactly what to do.  I think that providing students with such an assignment would be well worth it.  For one, you are not talking at them for an entire class.  You can just provide them with the steps and help as needed.  They should be able to clearly see what needs to be done and how to go about doing it.  It was an assignment that had multiple possibilities but basically the same overall outcome, as all of our slides had the same information.  For two, I feel that when I’m given an assignment to just make up something it’s really hard to get started.  Like, for example, if Gloria said make up a PowerPoint about something you’re interested in.  It has to be 10 slides and this is what needs to be on the first one…etc.  It takes all the time in the world to figure out what to do and then once you figure that out you are left with no energy to personalize it.  I just really enjoyed that our assignment was a basic overview of the main things in PowerPoint and then it allowed us, if we wanted, to explore it independently to liven it up.

            In a classroom, I would like to do something of that nature with my students.  I was kind of thinking if I they had a test coming up it would be a good way to integrate technology and learning.  As a class we could think of the important information that was going to be on the test.  It could be my responsibility to make up a handout, like the one we were given, for students to organize the information in a PowerPoint presentation.  Then they could explore the program and personalize the presentation.  All the while, the students would be making study notes for themselves and repeatedly seeing the important information would help them internalize it for a test.  Now you would have to do this a week before the test, or it could be done in increments throughout the unit.  Just a thought…not sure how it would turn out but I’d bet it would be something the students would never forget.

~Linsey~