Active teaching and learning with PowerPoint
I’ve been considering the way a person learns. A child is able to soak in the information like a sponge. All we saw, read or heard used to be a very easy catch for our memory. Then we grew older and the ability to retain a lot of the information we received went up in smoke. We are still learning, puffing like a steam engine, but at a slower pace, at a lower level than before.
It is apparent that each of us has an individual learning style. If you have determined your learning style you will be able to pave the road to more effective memorizing and absorbing information. Here I should mention visual learners and the ways which serve the best to deliver the knowledge base directly to the destination.
Visual learners have proved to be well-organized but they would be easily distracted by background noises. They will be perfect when describing charts and other imagery but show difficulty in assignments which do not have visual cues. This is particularly true for the classes of special education where students with learning disabilities need extra help with note-taking skills or visual support to accommodate their learning styles.Nowadays a teacher has much to offer with PowerPoint. Its popularity among students with disabilities was based on its ability to deliver something visual. Alongside with list phrases the program uses illustrations and graphs of any kind or shape. It can incorporate internet resources and film segments. Unlike the old systems, PowerPoint can build or stack the information. As the teacher keeps on speaking he can add more to a slide keeping the previous information projected while the new slide is placed into an emerging list.
A good visual learner makes use of a diagram or a map to detail out the learning that takes place rather than trying to write everything in a paragraph, so he or she can benefit the most from a PowerPoint presentation. With graphic support or graphs, movies or animation the program helps visual learners get a better understanding of a subject or lesson being taught.
It should be specified that PowerPoint acts as an accommodation for students with disabilities. The term “accommodation” refers to techniques which serve as a support system for the students’ learning abilities. It is especially important that it allows students with disabilities to be exposed to the same educational material and lessons that their non-disable group mates are doing. The program keeps information mentioned by the teacher projected on a screen or board in large, colorfully typed words that are easy to read. This also significantly helps with note-taking support – another form of accommodation.It is highly important that such a type of presentation gives the students with visual processing disorder more time to process the information that’s presented.It also makes it easy for others with auditory processing, memory processing, ADD, and autism to process or copy the information.
If used wisely PowerPoint helps to direct the student's attention but it does not constitute the learning experience. It’s not the PowerPoint itself but the way that instructors use PowerPoint that can improve student learning. My experience is that whether it is PowerPoint, graphs, pictures, transparencies etc., it is the teacher and teaching that makes the difference. Any, all, or none can enhance the experience if a master is teaching. Encouraging critical thinking, classroom discussion and student participation are some of the key ingredients and PowerPoint or any methodologies should be used only as they contribute to the learning experience.
No doubt that using PowerPoint helps to reach out to the different learning styles in the audience. Not everyone can retain information from hearing a lecture. However, if you illustrate that lecture through PowerPoint, it helps to cement the concepts for the student and becomes an interactive way of getting the learners to speak and think for themselves. It's crucial to learn who our students are and try to balance our classes so each student is receiving what they need.