Week 5 - Engagement Activities 1,2,3
My Powerpoint + Reflection on Powerpoint
I have used Powerpoint quite frequently in the past, however this week's engagement activities prompted me to explore some new avenues which will, undoubtedly, enhance my creativity and use of Powerpoint in the future. In particular I followed a link from the week 5 Moodle Learning Materials to a site called Powerpoint Magic, where I discovered another link to Presentermedia. I was so impressed by Presentermedia's animated 3D figures and templates, as well as their standard clipart, that I promptly purchased a year's subscription (40% off at present, if you are interested!). I also discovered Slideshare, but was less than impressed with the way it played back my powerpoint presentation, altering fonts and not operating my hyperlinks in the correct way - a formatting problem which has led to a less than professional end product when accessed through Slideshare. (I later uploaded this to my website, and the link is below this post).
I have always enjoyed using Powerpoint, and prefer to make my own templates/backgrounds and design my own layouts. This week I was really excited to learn about the hyperlink function, as this has opened up a whole new practical use for Powerpoint for me to utilise in the Early Childhood context. Now I can make interactive games for young students to learn, for example, phonics, early number skills, basic concepts, positional language and so on. This makes putting TPACK into practice a breeze, since any interactive Powerpoints I create can be structured to include technological, pedagogical and content knowledge, all while the children have fun playing!
The Powerpoint I created this week focuses on beginning sounds /a/,/b/and /c/. It is called Wonderful Words, Super Sounds. Students have the option of which sound they would like to explore, and are then presented with several images of items beginning with that sound. They are prompted to say the sound then say the word. After this, they are offered an activity, via a hyperlink, which asks them to identify images on a linked screen that begin with that same sound (there is a mix of correct and incorrect answers). Each image selected is hyperlinked to an individual results screen, which has the chosen image isolated and enlarged, with the word displayed beneath and the beginning sound highlighted using a key colour for that sound. There is information telling the student if they are correct, or if they need to try again. A variety of positive feedback is provided by animated characters, with remarks designed to amuse and encourage the young participants, thus keeping them engaged and learning. A 'next' hyperlink is included on each results page to return the student to the page where they can identify another word beginning with the chosen sound. At the bottom of this page, once the student has finished the activity, there is the option to view a screen with all images beginning with the chosen sound, with written words beside the images (a summary); and there is also the option to choose a 'new sound'.
To improve this interactive game, I would add some audio files, which would be activated when items are clicked on with the mouse. At present, children would initially benefit from having an adult help them to understand the task, but would soon learn what is required. The audio files would also be of benefit to students with additional needs and generally low literacy skills. I would also utilise the drag and drop idea discussed in the Moodle tutorial in many Early Childhood designed interactive Powerpoint games.
All in all, I think the possibilities with Powerpoint are endless. While the setting up of games, especially the hyperlinks that make them interactive, can be time-consuming, I think time spent preparing such games is an investment in creating a very useful bank of resources that employ each aspect of the TPACK concept in a very successful way. Using technology to teach content knowledge, really does require the thoughtful application of effective pedagogical skills and knowledge.
No comments:
Post a Comment