PowerPoint: Is It an Answer to Interactive Classrooms?

Yu+Smith, C+M (2008). Powerpoint: Is it an answer to interactive classrooms. International Journal of instuctional media, 35, Retrieved 04/121/09, from http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com.libproxy.chapman.edu:2048/hww/results/getResults.jhtml?_DARGS=/hww/results/results_common.jhtml.21


Technology has become an integral part of today’s teaching and learning process. Regardless of the growing expectation of integrating technology in education, many barriers however, have been indentified by the literature hindering teachers from teaching with technology. These barriers can be limited availability of equipment, Lack of training, lack of funds and lack of time for teachers to familiarize themselves with the use of equipment and software and lack of technical support. There are few teachers used computer-based technologies for instructional purpose, especially in the low level task such as drills and word processing are the major contribution of technology in the classroom. There are many software packages and web-based applications that successfully bring interactive multimedia technology to learning environment, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Photoshop, Hyper studio.

Common web-based programs include HTML, Microsoft FrontPage. Choosing the right software to meet the educational needs is a key element in integrating any technologies into classroom. Picciano (2002) states six factors to be considered when selecting software. These six factors include:
v Efficiency: How well are the programs written?
v Ease of use: How easy is the software to use?
v Documentation: What are the quality and the quantity of the documentation
v Hardware requirements: What hardware is needed to run the software?
v Vendor: What is the reputation of the developer in terms of support, maintenance and industry position?
v Cost: How much does it cost?

The most essential software to meet all the students’ learning styles when integrating technology into classroom is PowerPoint. As the need of third graders are different than the needs of eleventh graders. In third grade setting, PowerPoint could be used to help students indentify bugs for an insect collection, or create stories to enhance their literacy. The eleventh graders could use PowerPoint for cultural presentation. The ability to integrate sound and video into PowerPoint slides offers opportunity to teach language and culture to help students overcome the boundaries. Using PowerPoint could help students learn other languages by using pictures and their own language translated from native teacher or from translation sites on worldwide Web.

In addition, PowerPoint can insert complex computer graphics, animations and video clips, can be printed in any format that the presenters wish to use and have hyperlinks for certain website.
PowerPoint offers opportunity to meet the needs of students with different learning styles. Therefore, there are different classifications of learners. They include the print, aural, interactive, visual, haptic and kinesthetic learner (Dunn& Dunn 1999). According to Dunn & Dunn classification PowerPoint offers a way for teachers to individually address the needs of individual learner in the classification. For example, the print learner prefers to read books and reads for understanding, with PowerPoint direction can be written to help those learners to enhance reading skill. PowerPoint also offers a way to meet the needs of aural learner; the teacher can insert sound from the clip gallery, compact disc or record his own voice, giving students the guidance for the required activities. Interactive learner is well served by PowerPoint as teacher can prepare activities that required manipulation or games that interact with the learner to focus on students and on exact needs. The haptic learner enjoys doodling, is hands on, likes to create and manipulate, PowerPoint can help such a learner to create objects with drawing tools or create his own stories complete with pictures and animations. Kinesthetic learners are the most difficult for teacher to address and are most often those students indentified as having problem of attention. PowerPoint can combine sound, music, voice and picture to captivate learner’s attention and give a learner the sense of control over the learning process that makes it more interesting. PowerPoint also offers a way for students with disabilities to make the material presentable to their needs. A student with low vision could have graphics and text enlarged for more clear visibility. I concluded that the purpose of technologies is to help educators make their materials more interactive and more effective. Interactive multimedia software packages such as PowerPoint can allow teachers to gather the attention of their students and make them more engaged in the lesson activities.