Artifact 1

To create a PowerPoint Presentation, we worked in groups and looked at the Microsoft PowerPoint program. This program allows you to pick out the format that best suits your slide and allows you to insert pictures. Animated pictures can be found on the Internet and inserted as well. Also, sound effects can be added to the presentation. We added a hyperlink that directed the viewer to an activity related to the topic. We also added a colored title by changing the font and its features. Sound effects can be added by using sound files that correlate with the projections on each slide. Animations can be found on the Internet at sites like www.bestanimation.com where you can select a topic and choose from the animations that they have provided. Also, the program provides sound effects that correlate with the slide features as they appear on the screen. For example, when the animated picture of an owl appears on the screen, it can be accompanied by the sound of an owl hooting. Also, one feature of this program that is very beneficial to the presentation is the touch screen device. This aspect allows one part of the slide to be shown, and show another part of the slide at a later time. For example, the slide may include a question like, “How do plants use Carbon Dioxide to make sugar?” You could project this question and allow time for your students to come up with an answer, before they see the answer on the slide. The aspects of the slide are made visible at your command. Speakers are needed to project the sound included in the slides to the class. Students enjoy the additional feature of sound when associated with the subject being presented. A projector makes each slide visible for the entire classroom to see. It is a large screen that directly projects the image from the computer to the big screen.

Impact

Knowing how to use this program will be very beneficial to us as teachers. Students will enjoy seeing the presentation in a different form, instead of chalkboards and posters. Also, the sounds that go along with it are very interesting for students and will get them will engaged. This is a good way to present lessons that have many pictures by projecting them on a big screen that the whole class can see very well. Students who are visual learners, as well as audio learners will benefit from this type of lesson, because they can see the lesson as well as hear the teacher’s explanation of it. Also, knowing how to use this program helps the teacher become more familiar with other types of technological programs on the computer.

Alignment

This activity completes Competency 12.6 because you are utilizing the available resources in classroom presentations by using wireless devices (touch screen) to teach to the class. Also, competencies 11.2 and 11.4 are met because you are using the media and technology to present the subject so that it is comprehensive to others. Students learn best by seeing the lesson as well as hearing about it. Also, 11.4 states that we should be able to use technology to facilitate teaching strategies specific to the discipline.