Monday, September 26, 2011

Powerpoints: An opt-out lesson!

So I, a teacher, was a student this summer.  What I learned is that lecturing through PowerPoint has a limited time frame in which a student will listen.  This means using PowerPoint’s to visually and orally represent history has a time limit before a student mentally tunes-out the teacher.  In reality, the mind is given the ‘option’ to pay attention or not.



A PowerPoint has the intent to visual present a history topic as the main focal point, yet a student has a mental choice to ignore the presented facts.   To prevent the 'opt-out' behavior, a collaborative task with peers forces the historical lesson to become engaging.  I found myself, as a student, critically thinking amongst my peers about the history facts; even though, history was not the main focal point.

When history is presented, I internally believe peer to peer collaboration generated a more in-depth understanding of a history topic, whereas, the powerpoint allowed my mind to opt-out, tune-out, and day dream.

No comments:

Post a Comment