The power of PowerPoint

PowerPoint presentations were one of the first software devices that I was taught to use when I was a secondary school student. When interactive whiteboard's were installed in classrooms, one of the first features I noticed was how the teacher no longer needed to cram information all onto one board, or keep rubbing-out words in order to have space to write more. Through PowerPoint, multiple slides can be created and presented to pupils. Furthermore, these slides of information can be saved to use again and again in other lessons infinitely and can also be printed on paper for handouts. It is an easy tool to use and whilst presenting, you are able to forward features or slides by just touching the board. I was confident in using PowerPoint prior to the PGCE programme; therefore, it came as no surprise to me that I created a PowerPoint presentation when faced with my first class teaching students. This worked well and it was effective having slides up on the board for students to write notes from and also it allowed me to teach at the pace I wanted. PowerPoint offers sound, animation and many more features that can be effective to use when teaching. However, a frustrating part of using PowerPoint is the inability to write on the board whilst doing the presentation. I could not use the whiteboard pens to add notes or ideas from pupils, which would have made the presentation even more interactive.

After addressing the use of Socrative, I thought of trying a quiz that used ICT whilst also using traditional methods. I wrote questions on each slide, with multiple choice if needed, and encouraged students to write down their answers on paper. This saved me printing paper for the whole class and it was also an easier way to teach as I could go read-out each question as it was presented and to talk a little about what I wanted them to think about and remember. The students then did a peer assessment on one another and marked work by viewing the final slide, which contained numbered answers on it. Therefore, I would use PowerPoint again to conduct quizzes in class.