Post 6

Critiquing my Power Point 1 assignment, using the guidelines given in text I believe that I did an over-all good job. The chapters presented guidelines that would improve the overall look, flow, and presentation of an educational topic. Some of the guidelines dealt with choosing colors for the background or text that weren’t too bright, because the contrast may make it difficult to read. It also spoke on using the same background for the entire power point because it created a sense of professionalism and uniformity. Another point that was made in the text was to not place too much information on a slide; instead you should just input main concepts or ideas. Within the classroom setting I would use webcams in order to enhance participation within the curriculum. Power Point presentations allow you to input/upload videos into the presentation. I would record the students explaining or doing a report on a given subject and input their video clip in the Power Point, and show it for the class. The skills we learned in the past week were very beneficial to all of the students despite differences within majors. Power Point is a great visual and audio tool that can be used on a multitude of different levels, for business presentations, or within the educational environment.

Blog 5

For the visual critique I chose to use http://www.emory.edu/home/index.html. This website serves as the homepage for the Emory University. Chapter 6 of the book, outlined that a well designed website should be navigated easily, user friendly, and informative. It should stay away from being too complicated. Some pointers discussed were to avoid using bright colors, bold text colors, or using more than one text type. Keeping it simple and straightforward gives the website a clean professional look, and it is appealing to the eye. Emory University’s homepage is very informative, simple, and user friendly. It definitely uses a majority of the rules outlined in chapter 6.

Within the Classroom environment I believe that using presentation software positively adds to the educational enhancement of the given material. I believe that the most effective way for children to learn information is by visual and audio techniques. This allows more opportunities for success for the students, and it also strengthens/develops organizational skills. In my personal experience I’ve discovered that an effective way of learning new material is by teaching it to somebody else. If you can clearly explain a subject to another person it reinforces the material, and it will be easily memorized. Although I believe that there are many advantages to using presentation software within the classroom, there are disadvantages as well. In order for students to use these programs they have to be independent learners. Some students may not have the will power to sit quietly and complete the given task; they may view presentation programs as a tool to get off task. Technology in itself is a major disadvantage, because there is always room for technical difficulties, or errors.

In order to support student learning I would use Microsoft Power Point. This program allows the instructor to use a multitude of resources, in order to educate students. Using the visual components such as clip art, inputting videos, adding audio dialogue are all things that I would incorporate within the lesson plan. For example, if we were learning about past presidents, I would include a visual picture of the president, an audio caption of some of their accomplishments, as well as a video if possible of them while they were president. All of these learning strategies will aid them in grasping the concepts.

Post 4

n my classroom I will be sure to incorporate many concepts, such as developing outlines, story boards and idea maps. Learning and applying these tools will help my students make sense of ideas and stay organized. By creating an outline of the material learned, students will be able to fully comprehend the objectives and have clear notes to refer to. Story boards also enhance learning and help with confusion. All of these concepts can easily be made on Microsoft Word and I can teach them how by showing steps on a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation. A can also show them how to incorporate videos and pictures to visually help their learning.

I would definitely encourage my students to develop outlines, idea maps, and story boarding skills. Not only will it help them understand their material and stay organized but they are tools that they can use all their life to make things more clear and comprehensible. All three are great ways to make students see relationships and connections among the information. Also, students can make outlines, idea maps and story boards for any subject material to make their information more organized.

Learning how to mail merge is a very beneficial skill that I have learned in the past week that I will be sure to use in my future career. I had no idea that you could do that on Microsoft Word but it makes sending information to parents and/or teachers SO much easier! Also, recently learning what a legit website is compared to a website with false information is a great skill to know and apply to being a teacher. Now I will be able to direct my students in the right direction and teach them too how to determine between good and bad websites. I am excited that I have learned so much thus far that I can use towards my career and am looking forward to learning even more skills!