Week 3 - Power Point and Prezi

This week has been an interesting week, as not only has the learning tool we have had to explore this week been incredibly useful but it has seen me look at Power Point in a different way. Before this course I had used Power Point on a weekly basis after starting this degree I have had the pleasure of working with young males in reading support with which I have used PowerPoint to help them explore topics which motivate them. A specific example has been with a young man who I have helped create a profiling template with which he uses to profile a different wrestler each week as he is madly into W.W.E Wrestling.

Many people fall short with PowerPoint and expect students to be able to use the software without scaffolding learning. I can see from my experience with this young man, that every step must be explored to a certain point before the bug bites and the knowledge that is know about the program takes over and the creative energy starts to flow. I think the biggest sole problem I see with teachers using PowerPoint at the moment is the purpose for its use. This was the first thing that hit me when I was starting the profiling activity. After I explained my idea to the young man he turned to me and said "why?" and I thought to myself well its a good question. I turned to him and said "You are an expert on a topic, which is wrestling, I am someone who wants to know more about wrestling, this PowerPoint is going to show me all the information I need to know".

As soon as I said the word expert he looked at me and smiled as if to say "damn right I am". With that the motivation and need for powerpoint knowledge became unquenchable. I think the moral of this weeks blog is to make sure the purpose of the use of PowerPoint is purposeful without a reason for engaging with the software it's just another "thing" the students do.