Week 5 Engagement Activity 1

This engagement activity involved creating a PowerPoint that could be utilised in the classroom.  I spent hours following the instructions of 'how to make a lesson on addition using PowerPoint' included in the learning material (Brooks & Byles, n.d.).  I think that I somehow missed the more simplified learning instructions included in the engagement activity, that may have been more appropriate to my level of learning (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  I was very frustrated that after hours of hard work and effort, that my addition PowerPoint presentation did not actually work very effectively and therefore would not engage learners in the primary school setting.  I had never made a PowerPoint presentation previously, so experienced great difficulty trying to make an animated PowerPoint presentation as my first PowerPoint attempt.  This learning activity has taught me the importance of keeping it simple and taking little steps at a time and of course reading instructions better.  

As evidenced by multiple PowerPoint presentation used in education everywhere including my prior career as a midwife and Registered Nurse, PowerPoint presentations are very effective for visual learners (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  I plan to use PowerPoint presentations in the primary school setting in the future to teach all subjects across the board, however, I would prefer to use interactive PowerPoints to engage learners, for example, through multiple choice quizzes (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  With a good scaffold and a good understanding of PowerPoint presentations I do feel that combined with TPACK framework, PowerPoint presentations can facilitate good learning outcomes (CQUniversity Australia, 2012).  When using PowerPoint presentations in the classroom it is important for the teacher to model and teach safe, ethical and legal guidelines including crediting sources and parental permission for images of students in the presentation (CQUniversity Australia, 2012; Education Queensland, 2012).

My first attempt at a PowerPoint presentation that could be used in the classroom has been uploaded to my wiki.  This is the link. http://emmataylor411.wikispaces.com/PowerPoint


References:

Brooks, S., & Byles, B. (n.d.). Make a lesson on addition using
       PowerPoint. Retrieved from
       http://internet4classrooms.com/powerpoint_addition.htm

CQUniversity Australia. (2012). EDED20491- ICTs for Learning Design:

            Online Study guide. Retrieved from  

             http://moodle.cqu.edu.au/mod/page/view.php?id=115238

Education Queensland. (2012). Risk management. Retrieved from
            http://education.qld.gov.au/web/schools/riskman.html