Unit IV Reflection B - Using PowerPoint Presentations in the Classroom

Before putting this presentation together, I had never designed a PowerPoint with a young audience in mind. I found that I had much more fun creating a presentation to show to elementary students than I ever have when creating a presentation for my college peers. In this presentation, I used several slides to create an interactive multiple choice assessment. After reviewing the item, the students select one of two answers. The answers are hyperlinked and redirect to a slide that shows whether or not the answer was correct or incorrect. If incorrect, the next slide is a second presentation of the question. I love the idea of using PowerPoint as a way to informally assess students in class!

Multimedia can play an vital role in any classroom. I plan to use multimedia such as PowerPoint presentations frequently in my lesson plans as a way to make the lesson more interactive. As one of my classmates suggested in her discussion posting, PowerPoint is better suited for some subjects than others. Science, for example, is generally best learned with hands-on experiments and activities while history might be best learned using interactive presentations such as the multiple choice PowerPoint assessment I mentioned. I do feel that it is important that PowerPoint, or any technology actually, not be overused in the classroom. Although technology is great and more important now than ever, basic instructional methods should not be forgotten.