Powerpoint Training
September 6, 2006 by Graham Davidson
Yesterday I had the pleasure of introducing Microsoft Powerpoint to 15 teachers within the authority, both from the primary sector as well as the secondary sector. I was a bit apprehensive to start with but this soon disappeared as their faces began to light up along with expressions such as “oh, that’s brilliant”, “I can definitely use this” and “what a difference this can make to boring old lessons”. From the absolute beginner through to some of them who had dabbled before and were actually quite proficient, they all went away home with their own presentation(s) which they will be able to use. Indeed, one of them will be using hers today in a lesson. I would still advocate, though, that these courses should be over a number of days, not necessarily together, where the participants can go away, use and practice the skills they learn and bring back a completed project for the next days training which would take them further. I think this would help to maintain the enthusiasm and interest over a longer period of time rather than them returning to the ‘chalk face’ the next day and it’s all forgotten about. However, I shall now dismount from my high horse and finish off by saying what a wonderful experience yesterday was and thanks to all my “students” who put their heart and soul into the day. I hope it was worth it – it certainly was for me!!
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Glad you had a good day Graham. For what it’s worth, I think you are right – we should do courses over a period of time. Ideally, some online tution with support prior to attending an in-service day. Follow up would be vital. I’d love to make sure that a course was truly worthwhile also – how is the teacher using the knowledge they have gained? How is this being incorporated into their teaching? One day in isolation is clearly not enough.
I had the pleasure of delivering the same course last year Graham, and I do mean pleasure because the students, a mix of Secondary and Primary teachers using both Macs and PCs, really went away with a feeling that they had learned something worthwhile. In fact, a couple confided to me that they had had fun! I think that PowerPoint is becoming underrated because of more powerful applications such as Flash. In a classroom situation it is still much easier and quicker, for the less skilled, time-starved teacher, to create super looking teaching materials using PowerPoint. I’ve been on a couple of Flash courses, but still revert back to PowerPoint when I get back to school. Follow up, as Andrew says is vital and sadly it just doesn’t happen.