I officially give up on Powerpoint being an effective multimedia authoring tool. I knew there was a reason I hated powerpoint! After seeing some of the examples in the readings and activities I thought I might have been persuaded but after trying unsuccessfully for an hour to upload the file to a file sharing website I officially give up. For the record you can upload a straight boring powerpoint very easily using either google docs or Slideshare, however if you want it to retain the links embedded in the file, forget about it (or it could just be my dial up speed internet).
For the sake of this activity let's just pretend that I got my presentation to work. I thought it was a great idea to ask multiple choice questions on what type of headlines are used for selected ads in the context of a media class. I very quickly realised I was asking students questions that are at the bottom of the thinking scale. There was no critical analysis, no evaluation, and no reason to think. Students could simple click on the answers one by one to find the answer. This doesn't let them think about why the ad has used that style of headline or how.
With this in mind I set my next task as 'Make a list of the things you think make this ad appeal to your emotions'. I thought this at least forced some analytical thinking and in a fun way. The students would have to use their visual literacy skills to analyse and evaluate the use of colour, layout, balance and then combine this to make sense of the text in the headline. This seems like a better activity to encourage higher order thinking, but then why do I need powerpoint to present this question?
Powerpoint seems very limiting in what it can do and therefore I think limits the learning if it is used as a tool. I can see some great ways to use it for primary learning but it might just be a bit of a wet blanket to a high school student. I might think this just because I don't like powerpoint but I think there are better more engaging ways to create interactive multimedia presentations. I can't think of any right now other than building a simple website but Im sure over the course of my ICT journey I will find something bigger and better and more engaging than powerpoint to get my students excited about presentations!
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