Another fantastic tool - the interactive PowerPoint

Now, until I started Uni at the start of last year, I had seen powerpoints but had never physically made one. My 9 year old actually showed me how to do the basics! (sad, but true!!!) Anyway, I thought I was pretty clever and since then I have used them in my classes because they seemed like a more interesting way to share information with the students, rather than writing it up on the whiteboard. I did not realise that there is so much you can do using the 'hyperlink' tool. This takes it to a whole new dimension of interactivity.

  

So, after doing a bit of research, here is what I have come up with regarding interactive powerpoint presentations.
An interactive powerpoint is basically a presentation where the user has control over what parts they would like to view. This is achieved by clicking on the hyperlinked text, images or shapes. The user gets to choose what order they would like to view the information. Where, traditionally, the presenter would be going through the slides in a very linear motion, the interactive nature of these allows the user to choose when and where they go - a whole lot more choice for the users (or in our case, students).

  

I have created one that I have had a play with regarding Textiles. I love that the students are able to select a topic in an order that suits them. Obviously if I was preparing this for an actual class, there would be a lot more information added, but I did not go into too much detail as I can see that it will be a time consuming activity. 

The benefits for using this in a classroom setting are:
allows for student-centred learning rather than teacher-centred

• encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning
• great revision for students using interactive quizzes and hyperlinks to specific information
• by having hyperlinks to extra information allows for those students who wish to extend their knowledge on a particular topic.

The only disadvantage that I can see is the time it would take to set one up...........only I think it would be worth it in the end - not only could you use it in the classroom setting, but by making it accessible to students out of school hours would enable great revision activities.

In conclusion, I think it's a great tool that encourages ICT use within the classroom.