EDUC 6305: Power Point & Google Presentation Embed

Today's assignment involved creating a PowerPoint presentation reflecting a 'problematic' teaching standard or topic within our individual content areas. As my area of specialization is English, of which literary criticism can often be difficult for students (and teachers) to sort out within a classroom context, I felt that putting together a slide show reflecting some of the various schools of thought might be worthwhile. The presentation I made can be accessed below, or by clicking here.



TPACK
A teacher might use a Power Point presentation for several reasons over the course of instruction (CK). The tool could be used to outline assignment specifications, give an overview of the day's lesson, or if the teacher is lecturing, he or she might use presentations to illustrate the main points of that lecture. An additional significant facet for using PowerPoint to facilitate classroom instruction involves having students work on presentations of their own (P), either individually or collaboratively, fostering direct learning and presentation skills, and encouraging creativity (this is especially significant in the development of illuminated texts -I can not say it enough: Check out AWaytoTeach.net if you have not already done so!).

Of course, this process also teaches, facilitates, maintains, and showcases technological literacy (T), responsibility, effectiveness, and utility for teachers and students alike.


Relation to standards
The development and use of internet-accessible content material relates to several ISTE NETS standards, primarily #1 Facilitate and inspire student creativity and innovation by promoting student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding, thinking, planning, and creative processes; #2: Design and develop digital age learning experiences by customizing and personalizing learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities; #3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning by communicating relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats; and #4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility, by advocating, modeling, and teaching safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.

Integration
As an English Teacher I will be required to teach English language and literature. The quality of my classroom facilitation and inherent presentations may be improved by the systematic collection, development, archiving, and retrieving of electronic resources including graphic representations.

-The additional assignment component of posting the presentation within this blog is admittedly less than an rewarding process however. The ready accessibility of publishing online is once again a fantastic avenue for developing and sharing resources, ideas, and communication, but the transfer from MS platform presentation with multitudes of presentational devices to a limited and somewhat time consuming Google-based web application is not pleasant. Don't get me wrong, Google is great (if it weren't, I wouldn't have this blog or the ability to share documents as readily) and MS can be much less than great (for several reasons), but it takes time to get a presentation from one platform to the other, then more time playing with formatting. Ultimately, despite the effort necessary to provide it though, I'm happy with the results. And while the MS presentation might be more appealing visually, this one has much better mobility. -Plus I found a neat blackboard background... Let's take a moment to fully appreciate the various layers of irony and metaphor!

As always, comments are welcome. -Let me know what you think!