Week six - Power Point grumbles

As soon as Donna send us the tasks, the "monster" of Power Point loomed large on the horizon! Until this week, it was my technological "pet hate", for a number of reasons. The first is the amateurish overuse that I have witnessed. It seems I am not alone because look at what I have found :)

To be honest, the bottomline is that " the way PowerPoint is used should be ditched, not the tool itself. Suggesting we abandon PowerPoint because it's often (usually?) misused and abused to produce awful presentation visuals is like saying we should dump the idea of 24-hour cable news because so much of it is vacuous rubbish. "

Anyway, this week put an end to my excuses. I need to mention that seeing the worth of the interactive buttons made the difference. And, above all, the examples posted by my course mates  had such a boosting effect. It will take a long time to master the countless shades and nusances, popping up or falling down opportunities to be able to create something that will meet the expectations of the bored (with PP) audience of  teenage experts.

Talking of them, another word loomed large as well - feedback! Always in need of motivation, as seen from the last survey . I think we speak different languages when it comes to this word. 

Or I suppose they are simply tired of being spoon-fed and expected to reproduce. I would be in their place. We had a long talk about the project, they got acquainted with Zunal WebQuest Maker and found it friendly to use. A number of my colleagues were intrigued , too, so I suggested the kids take the initiative and teach them (the teachers who do not speak English) how to use WebQuests. A group work on a web quest in any subject can transfrom the classroom and help students express themselves in a new way.

The project..........Time is ticking away and we have to get it going! Besides, we don't have classes next week because of the state exams. On Monday I will show them  some interactive PPPs (Eldin's and Katty's, most probably) to see if they have learned it in their IT lessons. A quiz done interactively can be a great final product for the project. 

To recap, Power Point has had a very powerful point this week.