Thesaurus - Treasury for Adult Education

 

Grundtvig: 2013-1-RO1-GRU06-29551 5

 

Subject: The use of the PowerPoint in adults’ education

 

Authors: Yiangos Ktorides, Antonis Antoniou

 

April 2015

 

The purpose of this article is to examine the use of the PowerPoint [1](PP) in Adults’ Education.  The impact of the PP on both teachers and students is going to be firstly examined and then a discussion will follow on how to give a presentation by using the PP, as well as on various ways of using PP during the learning and evaluation process.  Lastly, the discussion will focus on the learning outcomes of the use of PP for students.

 

It is broadly acceptable among educators that adult learning is somehow different from child learning.  The adult learner brings to the learning situation a lot of personal experiences drawn from the family, the community and the world of work.  These experiences, when identified and fully utilised, can enhance participation in adult learning activities.  This is one of the major challenges to the teacher in the provision of adult learning opportunities.  It is important to realise that not all experiences are a bonus to learning.  Some experiences are clearly a hindrance or a barrier to learning like for example their unfamiliarity with ICT, which can be an obstacle that needs to be overcome with the appropriate help of the teachers.

 

The examination of the benefits of the use of PP is aiming at helping: a) the teachers to better understand its usefulness for specific learning purposes in adults’ education, and b) the adult learners overcome their fear in using it due to lack of appropriate skills.

 

The impact of PP on teachers and students

In examining the impact of the use of PP on both, teachers and students, a reference on the advantages and disadvantages of the use of PP for both of these groups will follow.

Advantages in using the PP for the teachers: There are several advantages in using the PP in the classroom setting.  A presentation can become more effective because it stimulates the interest of the adult learners since a variety of objects can be included like animation clips, graphics, sound effects, video clips or movies as QuickTime, hyperlinks, audio clips, ClipArt etc.  Also, the utilities of the PP contribute towards a dynamic interaction between the learners, something that facilitates the learning process.  Students can use it individually adjusting to their learning goals and in this case the objects can be used as observation material as well as instructional ones. (This can include tests in a form of gaining points).  Additionally, PP adds an aesthetic value to a presentation with the use of exotic colours and designs, numerous fonts and varied templates. The templates as well as the other material like animation, video clips, etc can be found easily in the Internet or in the CDs. The teachers can use the PP for almost all subjects, and furthermore they can modify the presentation easily to adapt it to any special lesson requirements.  The fact that the PP files are relatively small which makes it easy to copy them in a USB memory stick or send it by email is an additional advantage for its use.   Furthermore, the use of the PP permits teachers to create easily handouts for a presentation. Finally, the teachers can use the PP presentations of their students in evaluating them.

Disadvantages in using the PP for the teachers: One of the main disadvantages for the teachers concerns their lack of skills in using computers.  This contributes to low motivation in using new teaching methods in their classrooms including the use of the PP.  At the first stages of the process of introducing the PP in the learning procedure the teacher has to invest a lot of time preparing his/her presentation and a lot of effort is needed in order to become familiar and use it in a productive way.

 

Advantages in using the PP for the students:  The use of PP by the students has several advantages.  This software is so easy to use that allows them even with little knowledge of it to create a presentation. It is also exciting and stimulating for the students  to create a presentation with the use of objects as pictures, animation, graphics, ClipArt, Audio and Video clips etc. These objects can be detected easily by the students. Therefore they have the opportunity to use various sources of objects and by doing that they have the chance to search and judge. They have to decide about the content of a presentation as well as about what it needs to be disseminated, therefore judging what is important and what is unimportant.  At the same time they have to decide about the structure of the presentation and make an assessment of what is important.  All of the above contribute towards a more effective way of learning.  The use of the PP, as it is mentioned before stimulates their interest on a subject, promotes their creativity and helps them express their ideas with more confidence.  This experience is fun and makes learning enjoyable.  With the right use of hyperlink in the internet and external files the student is actually encouraged for an active and autonomous learning. 

Furthermore, by using the PP the students have the chance to evaluate their own presentations as well as the presentation of their classmates.  Additionally, by using the PP they learn to make references to the various sources they had already used.

 

Disadvantages of the use of PP for the students: These concern the lack of skills in using computers, and as a consequence the lack of motivation in using the PP.

General Advantages: PowerPoint is a widely used, relatively inexpensive programme and therefore easy to have it.  Additionally a PP presentation can be converted to html form and can be used through the Internet.

General Disadvantages:  The use of the IT in the teaching process requires the existences of the necessary infrastructure. More specifically, for a PP presentation it is necessary to have a video projector and a screen and/or a surface that can be used as a screen.

Discussion on how to give a presentation by using the PP

There are some points that a PP presenter must have in mind during a presentation, which are the following:

• The presenter has to be in command, must have eye contact with his/her audience, and his/her body language has to be in accordance to the situation.

• His/her voice has to be loud and clear.

• He/she has to create a good working atmosphere.

• He/she has to stimulate the interest and the involvement of the audience.

• He/she has to stimulate the audiences’ interest for further discussion.

• He/she has to answer the audiences’ questions in positive way.

 

In conclusion, the presenter must support clearly his/her opinion and at the same time must have the courtesy not to monopolize the discussion.

 

Various ways of using PP in the learning process

The PP can be used:

• As a mind-map without presenting it to others.

• As a repetition and preparation before tests and exams.

• As part of group activities.

• As inspiration to creative storytelling (storyline) orally or in written form.

 

Visual aids are useful tools for focusing on the important parts of the presentation.  However, visual aids should not be the only way to attract the audiences’ attention. At the same time the presenter’s voice and body language are equally important.

 

The use of PP in the evaluation process

 

Another advantage of the PP that needs to be mentioned refers to its use in the evaluation process.  By using the PP learners are helped to make an effective self-evaluation, teachers are helped to evaluate better their students, peers are helped to evaluate  each other, and these evaluations can be both oral and written.

The learning outcome of the use of PP for the students

 

The PP presentation requires first that the students know how to make a presentation in general, and secondly to adjust this presentation to the PP requirements.

 

The preparation of the PP presentation

In order to make a presentation, the students need first of all to collect information on the subject they like to present. To do so, they need to consult books, dictionaries, the Internet, and other sources related to the subject of their interest. 

After collecting the information, they need to analyse, compare and evaluate the information they had found using critical thinking.

Then, they have to summarize and organise the information which is going to be presented. The presentation needs to start with an introduction, followed by the main part, and finished with a conclusion.

When the students have done research on their selected topic and have chosen the procedure of their presentation, they need to select carefully the keywords they will use for the PP presentation.  These keywords must be carefully selected to attract the audiences’ attention, and at the same time to be useful as a reminder to the presenter for the sequence of his/her presentation. 

Additionally, the students need to use their artistic touch to make their PP attractive. The variety they can use is large like photographs, clipart, colours, music, sounds, videos, animations, etc.  The avoidance of very fancy objects and a balance of the used colours will make the presentation more effective.

 

It seems that by using the PP students are learning much more than just the use of the ICT.

 

When the PP is ready, the students must practice their presentation and how to speak in front of the public. They need to practice the tone and clearness of their voice, their expression, their body language, etc.  At the same time they have to learn to manage at an acceptable level their stress about presenting.  Actually the use of the PP helps the presenter with the structure of his/her presentation and supports him/her during the presentation, something that helps to the increase of his self confidence.

The use of the PP in the learning process

In reference to the learning process, the PP is a useful tool because it can be used for different subjects like:  maths, sciences, geography, history, languages, etc.

 

Since it is very important to involve the students during the learning process the PP can promote the interactive learning because it gives the chance to the students to answer quizzes, to solve problems, to fill in texts, to play games, hypertext links, etc.  Also it can be said that, to a certain extent, PP can be used by the students (individually or in groups) to evaluate their progress during the learning process.  All of the above are more applicable to the adult learners.

Conclusion

PP proofs to be a useful program that promotes the adult learning.  By using PP, one can learn by doing, while at the same time has a high degree of independence and self guidance, which are very important characteristics of adult learners.

 

The students learn while preparing their PP presentation as well as when they actually present it.

Learning by using PP gives the students both, a professional approach to the topic and an experience on how to give a presentation and on various ways of evaluation.

In conclusion, it seems that the appropriate use of PP –avoiding exaggerations- in adults’ education contributes in an effective way to higher levels of learning, by promoting autonomous and independent learning, while making the learning process a pleasant experience.

 

 

 

 

[1] PP is a presentation Software that is included in the Microsoft office package.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Cyprus Computer Society Publications