Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

This past week in Technologies of Instruction we learned about Microsoft Office PowerPoint and the multiple features that make it user-friendly. We learned about the strenths and weaknesses of the program. A major strength of PowerPoint is that it provides a great teaching tool when used properly. The biggest weakness of the program would be that it is easily abused. It is easy to put more emphasis on the appearance of the presentation than on the actual content. This is very distracting and ineffective. We discussed suggestions of how to effectively put together a successful presentation using Powerpoint, covering the areas of design, delivery, and instructional strategies. Design is important because you want your presentation to look nice but you do not want to overdo it and take away from the content. We learned multiple tips on how to best present the needed information, including things such as limiting the amount of text on the page and choosing one design style for the entire presentation. Delivery focused on tips like arriving early to test equipment and what to do when you want to shift attention from the PowerPoint to you, and vice versa. Instructional Strategies emphasized making the presentation interactive so that your audience is not merely staring at a screen for your entire presentation.

I had never really thought that I would use PowerPoint very often as an Elementary and Early Childhood Education major. I still can't see myself using the program very often, if at all, in my actual classroom to teach my students. However, the program is a good tool to know how to use if I ever need to give any sort of presentation. I may also be able to use PowerPoint for some activities or interactive games with my students.