Week 7 Blog: Writing with Technology & Power Point

Week 7—Blog Posting

          What kind of writing activities would I use in my classroom to make the best use of technology?  Well, it would depend on what class I was teaching.  If I were teaching an English class I could see using blogging to keep a daily journal for writing ideas and thoughts, and because most students write more when using a computer I would let the students use a word processing program such as Microsoft Word to write their creative writing papers and essays.  I would have to be sure students knew they still had to proofread and edit their papers because the computer doesn’t catch everything.  If I were teaching a history class I would have the students do research and then use a word processing tool to create reports.  From there I would have the students create a Power Point presentation from their reports to get the information to other students.  I would encourage them to use sound, graphics, pictures, etc. to make their presentations more interesting.  If I were teaching other things such as science or art I would probably be doing about the same as I would for history.  I plan on coaching and teaching physical education (PE) so I might be able to incorporate a little writing in the PE classes by having the students do research on different sports and games and then write reports again using the word processor.  If I worked on a campus that had teams of teachers we might get together and do a unit that involved all the classes.  For example, we might do a unit on basketball.  The social studies teacher could have the students do the history of the game.  The math teacher could do the statistics involved in the game.  The science teacher could do the physics or the trajectory that needed to be used for people of certain heights to make the basket.  The art teacher could make posters for an upcoming game.  And, I as the coach could have the students give presentations to other grades using the information gathered in the other classes and use Word and Power Point and have them do physical demonstrations.  That is how I would use technology to produce writing in my classroom.

          Power Point is a wonderful tool to use during presentations, but the speaker doesn’t need to let the Power Point presentation distract the audience.  From being in the audience during presentations using Power Point I know some major things to avoid.  In the presentation the font needs to be large enough so that people can read it from a reasonable distance.  In other words, you can’t put too much on a slide.  Another thing is that the Power Point creator needs to make good color choice for the background and text.  For example, yellow text on a white background is very hard to see from the audience.  One also doesn’t want the background to district from the text.  It is sometimes hard to read text if the background is too “busy.”  Sound is good in a presentation, but one needs to be sure that it is not distracting or irritating.  For example, I was in a class with a student who used the sound of breaking glass each time the slide changed.  It was totally irritating and by the end of the presentation I was ready to slap the young lady doing the presentation.  Finally, the number one thing that annoys audiences is for the presenter to read every word on every slide.  The important words, yes, but every word, give the audience a break!  I believe that I can avoid most of the pitfalls in the actual Power Point, but I might have a little trouble doing the actual presentation itself.

          I can see the value of using technology to stimulate writing activities in the classroom, and I see the value of teachers using Power Point in the classroom.  I enjoy my instructors using Power Point.  However, do I envision myself using technology in writing activities and Power Points a lot when I teach?  No, not really, because I plan on coaching and teaching PE.  If I am assigned to teach in a regular classroom setting I will try to get most of my lessons on Power Point and I will have the students utilize technology as much as possible.

References

Johassen, D., Howland, J., Marra, R.M., & Crismond, D.  (2008).  Meaningful learning with

          technology.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Merrill-Prentiss Hall.