When designed and used effectively, slide presentations have many advantages. The University of Central Florida lists these advantages as follows:
- Engaging multiple learning styles
- Increasing visual impact
- Improving audience focus
- Providing annotations and highlights
- Analyzing and synthesizing complexities
- Enriching curriculum with interdisciplinarity
- Increasing spontaneity and interactivity
- Increasing wonder
While I believe that standard slide presentations have their place in instruction, slide presentations that include interactive elements are much more engaging for students. The focus is taken off of the teacher for a bit of time and put onto the SMARTBoard in front of the room. Teachers must take time to include images, color, and interactive elements to increase student interest.
Students can use slide presentations to show what they know to a larger audience. Google presentations allow students to work independently or collaborate with others. I am in the process of introducing my second grade students to creating slide presentations through a shared Google presentation about the Olympics. Pairs of students have been assigned a country that is competing in this year's games. Research must be done on the country, and information from their research must be included on the slide. An image must be inserted. Medal counts must be found and recorded daily. Through this process, students are incorporating the 21st century skills of communication and collaboration with their partner to determine the contents of each slide. A key point that I continually address is that less is more. Right now, students think..."the more, the better! Including six of my country's flags on my page looks WAY better than just one." Ah, the mind of a second grader.... Good design must be taught and constantly reinforced through reminders. This is true for second graders, as well as adults!
Here is the Google presentation I created for my second graders.
University of Central Florida. (n.d.) Effective Use of PowerPoint. Retrieved from http://www.fctl.ucf.edu/teachingandlearningresources/Technology/PowerPoint/index.php