Week 5 - Powerpoint, Prezi and Glogster!

This week in E-Learning, we were yet again introduced to different digital pedagogies. These included Powerpoint, Prezi and Globster.

POWERPOINT
The first resource which I explored was PowerPoint. I have used PowerPoint many times throughout my life. However, when it came to making a presentation focused towards engaging children within a classroom, this became an unknown experience to me. In the past I had only used PowerPoint for assignments and class presentations. I was challenged to come up with a new way of using this learning tool. Therefore, after brainstorming for what seemed like ages - I thought, "what if I could turn the PowerPoint into a game for a way children can learn their spelling words. I called this game Guess The Covered Word. Below is a screen shot of my PowerPoint.

 PowerPoint can also to great tool used to help teachers remember their lessons for the day. Adding promoting words to each slide to refresh your mind. This would prevent you from referring to your lesson plan all the time. As I am currently undertaking prac in a grade 4 classroom, I am going to try this learning tool during my next day visit. This learning tool could be used in many other engaging ways such as introducing them as an assignment. Instead of writing in a book - make a presentation. PowerPoints could also be more interesting if you were to add sounds and pictures. Using PowerPoints within a classroom is a great way to target students who are auditory and visual learners. Kinesthetic learners are targeted when they are constructing their own PowerPower presentations.

PREZI 

Prezi was another learning tool which was explored this week. Prezi is known as an online interactive slideshow software. It is extremely interesting and amazing for children to engage themselves in. When playing around with Prezi, I found that it was very similar to PowerPoint, however, it is more fun! It has a function which allows you to upload PowerPoints which you have already created and turns it into a more entertaining and engaging presentation. Before today I had never used Prezi, therefore I found it extremely confusing to begin with. I found some instructions on how to navigate my way through Prezi. After a few minutes of playing around with different tools within the site I became confident with the software. I think that students would need a lot of practice using Prezi before they were confident to construct their own presentation. However, I believe students would definitely benefit from viewing a Prezi presentation in their classroom. Year 5 and up would be capable of using this program.

GLOGSTER 
Glogster is an online site where you can create your own account which allows you too generate your very own posters from scratch. It reminds me a lot of scrap booking but all done on the computer!! I love the idea of using this as learning tool. You are able to add your own videos, photos, audio and text. There are many different fonts to choose from to decorate your Glogster as much or as little as you like. I had never used Glogster before today, so I was extremely surprised when I could use the site with no trouble at all.

Glogster could be used in classrooms for many different purposes. The teacher could use it as an interesting and engaging way to share information with students. Students could use this site to create a posters about there experiences throughout a unit. This learning tool challenges students to think creatively. Kinesthetic, visuals and audio learner can all be targeted by using this program. The greatest thing about this program is that it can allow you, as the teacher, to make a class account. This would then mean that your students can create their own usernames and passwords which you can then view on Glogster and keep track of their activities and progress with their creative masterpieces. Below is a Glog I created.

Jenny Abel