Often during the school day I am surrounded by PowerPoint presentations and more and more I am realizing that this program is not nearly as helpful as I first thought.
What I notice most is that this program is gradually becoming less of a learning tool and more of a "lesson in a box". What I mean by this is that it decreases the amount that a teacher's personal ability affects the effectiveness of the lesson. While this can be a lifesaver to inexperienced or less skilled teachers, more experienced or skilled teachers may be losing more chances to truly stand out.
But, since I am not a teacher I will focus more on the effects PowerPoint presentations have on me as a student. Most notably I notice a very negative reaction among my peers and myself whenever we find out that the whole lesson will be included onto network access. This mainly consists of the amount of notes taken being decreased significantly followed by a significant lack of attention.
Of course this doesnt apply to every situation and often whenever a teacher can make a PowerPoint interactive and untilized as a learning TOOL I find it is a very useful program indeed, unfortunately though many cases of PowerPoint dependancy are also seen every day.
5 comments:
I also think that teachers should use powerpoint to help students to pay attention in class.
I agree, power points tend to get old and students stop paying attention to teacheres unless they make the learning interactive.
I agree that when teachers say that a powerpoint will be available on network access it allows a student to slack off because he/she knows they will be able to view this lesson at a later date. Although, you may feel that this weakens a teacher's teaching skill, I believe that it is very helpful for students who miss a lesson and if a student decides to slack off; well, that's their perogative.
I completely see where you're coming from. My history teacher uses nothing but powerpoints and movies for her class. It's so frustrating because I feel like she isn't teaching us anything and there is no reason for her to even be there! It's pretty difficult focusing in class and respecting your teacher when the are so easily replaced by technology.
I think that sometimes Powerpoints do allow people to slack off as well. And by saying that they will be on the network, that just even furthers people's ideas that they can always just access it later and they would rather sleep now. Watching words on a screen does not always help me learn the best, but I think they are okay in small amounts.
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