PowerPoint and Dropbox

Summary

Part One

This week, I was required to do something I have done a million times before and yet I can also say that this week I have tried and learned about more things than I have in previous weeks. I remember when, just a few years ago, being able to create a PowerPoint made you the cool kid in class. But, with the rate of technology, presenting a PowerPoint in class is likely to make you the boring, unimaginative one. I have to admit though, I find well done PowerPoints to be an efficient and effective educational tool along with other presentation mediums and I use them all the time. I have not yet felt prepared to move on from this technological tool. In defense, I do always try to use new designs that will catch my students’ attention and serve as visual tools to help them remember the most essential content. This week, the assignment was to create a PowerPoint. I took this opportunity to explore features of PowerPoint that I have never used before or have not fully experimented with.

Part Two

Whenever I take my PowerPoints to school, I email them to myself and put them on my flash drive because I can’t bring my laptop (which I use to create my PowerPoints). This is not always an easy and safe procedure. There have been occasions when I have not had access to my email account or when the file didn’t save or send properly. Dropbox, a cloud application, may just solve all of my problems. Dropbox can be downloaded to your computer and is available online by registering. By dragging and dropping a file into a Dropbox folder within My Computer. By doing so, the file magically appears within a personal Dropbox account folder online. The file can then be shared with others, no emailing required!

What I Did

I created a PowerPoint that is drastically different from any other I have made. I recently learned that when movement is involved in educational presentations, students are better able to remember content, and therefore, I added animations to my PowerPoint. I also included sound effects that will hopefully bring life to the lesson. I limited my use of informational text as much as possible (which is not my strong suit, clearly), I synthesized shapes and background styles to create slides with unique backgrounds, and I added a video. My PowerPoint corresponds to standard 5.6 and 5.7 of the Virginia Standards of Learning as it is a review of the seafloor with connections to erosion and weathering; it will hopefully keep any fifth grader’s attention and interest.

            I made my PowerPoint available for viewing by putting it in Dropbox and copying and pasting the link proved within my blog.

What I Learned

            This time I’m going to have to turn this section into a list. Get ready, it’s long…   

PowerPoint Related

·         How to animate text

·         In a given order

·         one or more sections of text at a time

·         How to add sound effects

·         How to change the color of a background style

·         How to use shapes in different ways

·         How to set a photo within a shape

·         How to change the width and height of beveling effects

Dropbox Related

·         Dropbox is simple to use

·         Dropbox can be used for personal purposes or to share files

·         The size of the file doesn’t matter

·         Files can be drag and dropped, they do not need to be uploaded.

How I Would Use It

            Both teachers and students can use PowerPoint to present information. I like to use PowerPoint to include written directions in lessons that can be easily referenced throughout a lesson, to have easy access to videos for lessons, and supply information in a visual format (as opposed to an unaccompanied lecture) for students with a visual learning style. Asking students to create PowerPoints, allows them to choose information to present that they think is most important and interesting through while tapping into their creativity through design.

Standards Reflection

            As PowerPoint is a digital tool that incites creative and critical thought in its user, in order to present relevant information to reach individuals with multimodal learning styles, I believe that the use of PowerPoint in the classroom meets all of ISTE-NETS-T’s standards and the majority of their components.

            When teachers use Dropbox to share files, they are collaborating to communicate ideas in a way that promotes efficiency in the workplace and therefore, they meet standard three of the ISTE-NETS-T’s standards.