I was never a huge fan of power point presentations. I felt like they were boring and many teachers just read off the slides. I do not feel like power points are a good use of technology in a math class, because math is interactive and you need to do many examples on paper. This is something that you cannot do with a powerpoint. A powerpoint presentation is used more for factual lessons, not interactive lessons. I do not feel that power point is appropriate in math.
I do not think powerpoint can never be used in other subjects such as english or history. In english and history there are many more facts and opinions being presented where power points can do the job. Teachers can use power points to organize there lesson into different slides and teach one or two facts at a time. This allows students to focus on one slide at a time and not become overwhelmed of a whole page of information at once.
In math classes teachers can use interactive websites, typed up outlines of text and examples where they can write in the work on the board, or they can use handed out worksheets for the students to work in groups with any tools they need to figure out a problem. To me these are better options to get learning to take place in a math class than using power point presentations. When I was a student and I had to learn from power point presentations I was always bored and usually did not pay attenuation because the teachers always scrolled throughout the slides to fast and I couldn’t get all the notes down, and they were lecture based not student based.
I can respect the points that you are making in this post and it poses a different view on PowerPoints. I also posted about using PowerPoints in class, but I spoke about them in a positive manner. I think that PowerPoints could be used to display graphs, shapes, and other visuals. This allows for the images to be accurate and clear for all students to see. Sometimes when drawing a graph or a shape on the board, it can be disproportional and can confuse students. I agree with you that reading off PowerPoint slides can be very boring for students, but I do think that PowerPoints have many positive uses in a math classroom. Good post! It was interesting to hear a different opinion on this subject!
ReplyDeleteOne of my biggest pet-peeves is the abuse of PowerPoint presentations. I cannot stand them. I have gotten to the point now that almost every time a professor looks to use one I cringe and leave the class. I am this way because unfortunately too many educators use PowerPoint as a means teaching entire lessons, rather than supporting their lessons. Educators who read straight off PowerPoints do not understand that most 8 year olds can do so, and that it really takes away from the meaning of being a teacher. I will say this, though, those who use PowerPoints to support/enhance their lessons, however, end up being great educators, because they provide a way of visualizing what is often conceptually being discussed in class. Unfortunately, I haven't had too many professors like this.
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