Power Point Presentations

Many teachers post the PowerPoint slideshows from their class presentations for students to use for review.  One possible use of PowerPoint slideshows that often goes overlooked, however, is the ability to create stand-alone lessons that are already organized in a step-by-step pattern.  For solving problems, describing procedures or explaining rules, this structure of breaking large processes into discrete steps in a format where students can flip back and forth as needed can be a powerful pedagogical tool.  PowerPoint also provides the ability to use animations, colors, fonts, illustrations and formatting to emphasize and clarify relationships between parts of concepts.

There are two main ways to deliver a Power Point slideshow at KBCC, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

1. Post the PowerPoint .ppt file where students can download it.

Here's a sample of a PowerPoint lesson posted as a .ppt (editable) or .pps (non-editable) file.

UseOfSources.ppt

And here is another narrated PowerPoint slide show that KCC's Prof. Amy Haas created for her students. She makes the PPT available as download on her course Blackboard site:  ch12 current liabilies show file.pps

Pros: The slideshow comes through with its animations (except in BlackBoard) full-sized on the screen

Cons: The student must have PowerPoint installed on the machine s/he is using: this works for students using computers on campus, but may not work at home.

To avoid some of these shorcomings and to take advantage of some of the students' technology, the same powerpoint file can also be converted into an mp4 file (as a vodcast) and posted on Blackboard, iTunes U, or uploaded to a student's portable media player (such as an iPod): ch12 current liabilies show file (1).mp4

2. Post the PowerPoint slideshow on a sharing site such as Slideshare (www.slideshare.net) or Google Docs (http://docs.google.com/)

Here's a sample of the same lesson posted on Slideshare (link) Use of Sources

And an embedded version of the same slideshow:

Pros: Anyone can view the slideshow, with or without PowerPoint. Slideshows can be puplic or only made available to special users.

Cons: Extra step required, animations and effects may not go with the file.

3. Store, narrate, and share your documents online and share them with your students (VoiceThread.com)

Here is an example that I found in the archive/library of voicethread.com. The PPT is narrated and supported by other people's voice comments. The content is about web 2.0 in the classroom: http://voicethread.com/#q+online+teaching.b40211.i210877

Pros: Anyone can view the slideshow, with or without PowerPoint. Slideshows can be puplic or only made available to special users.

Cons: Extra step required, animations and effects may not go with the file.

And here's a voicethread that provides a brief introduction into using voice thread http://voicethread.com/share/173180/

PPTs can also be narrated on http://slideshare.net by uploading a .mp3.