The use of powerpoint as a learning and instructional tool

In this digital age, it will be naive to expect to engage students without the use of digital technology. Powerpoints are only one of the many technological tools we can use in organizing instructions or information.

The use of powerpoints for facilitating instructions allows main points to be emphasized and the presentation can be enhanced by music, animation and sound. Text on a powerpoint is much more easier to read than text written on a overhead projector or a white board. With the use of hyperlinks, students can also navigate pages quicker or recover information in a easy way.




Student interest can be evoked by the use of graphics and comics. In the modelling lesson where students' participation is minimal, stimulating visuals and audio can work together to sustain interest. This is applicable to today's era of images-bombarded generation of children and even more so for special needs like autism as such children are marked with a high vision orientation.



Powerpoint helps to organize information in many interfaces. If I had made a powerpoint on famous Australians and presenting it, I can be interactive with the audience and ask:" What type of famous Australians should we explore first?" The audience answers:" Musicians." I click on the the hyperlink- Musicians and I will immediately go to the section of famous Australian musicians.

With the size of each powerpoint slide, there is a limit to the number of words and thus the learning manager is conscious of keeping words within a limit. This, in a way, protects the text from being too long and thus losing the audience.

The use of bullets transitions, animations and audio allow the presenter/learning manager to focus on the main points and when they should be presented in sequence to each other to create the scaffolding process we understand in creating learning shifts.


The concrete examples of using powerpoints int he classroom could include:

1. Creating field trip slide shows: Students could work together or individually to create a slideshow of their field trip that represents what they have seen and learnt.

2. Projects. Students working on the project "Mini-beasts" can break into groups and investigate and explore a certain part of the topic and use powerpoints to consolidate information and present.

3. Literacy: Students can create a powerpoint that includes different parts of speech and add on to the list as they learn more. This can become their archive of words or text types.

4. Numeracy: Step by Step Maths processes and concepts can be organized and presented in a sequential order in a powerpoint.

5. Science presentations: With the use of diagrams, the process of science with hyperlinked explanations or use of organization charts to classify and re-classify will allow for enhanced information processing.