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Teaching has
become one of the most challenging and stressful careers today!
Young people
have had very early exposure to the racy, exciting,
attention-grabbing world of TV, videos, computers, arcade games,
DVDs, MP3s and many more exciting gadgets!
The drab
textbooks and the ‘chalk and talk’ method of lesson presentation
that has been used for the past 100 years, can no longer hold
the attention and interest of so many of our young people today!
The big
question is: ‘Are the majority of my lessons interesting,
challenging and stimulating enough to be truly meaningful to the
young people in the 21st century?’
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Research:
University
research in the last 15 years, indicates the following. Students
and learners remember and retain:
q
10% of what
they read
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26% of what
they hear
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30% of what
they see
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50% of what
they see and hear
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70% of what
they see, hear and say
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90% of what
they see, hear, say and write!
It is also
known that 70 – 80% of the understanding and learning required
of a learner, can and usually does take place in the classroom
situation and environment – provided the learner continues to
pay attention.
These
statistics make it quite obvious that, as teachers, we need to
structure our lessons in such a manner that our learners are
able to retain the maximum amount from each lesson, so that
every lesson is an effective and productive one for our
learners.
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What
constitutes a good lesson?:
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The keystone
of any teaching/learning process and experience is an effective
communication between teacher and learner and vice versa.
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Good
teaching is essentially good communication and it requires clear
explanation on the part of the teacher and intelligent
absorption of the material, ideas and concepts, on the part of
the learner.
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Learning is
the result of experiences collected by different modes of
perception. Visual aids provide one such experience.
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Audio and
visual aids:
There are
many teaching aids such as, board and chalk, textbooks, charts,
models, radio, tape recorders, TV OHPs, slide projectors,
computers, data & multimedia projectors, disc players and even
MP3 players.
The problem
is – it takes vision, time, effort, skill, knowledge, drive and
perseverance to prepare enough of the right material for each of
these different teaching aids. The majority of us find that we
do not have what it takes to do this on a regular basis and most
settle for textbooks and the tried and tested ‘chalk & talk’ for
our lessons.
Is this fair
to our learners?
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Multimedia
presentations in teaching:
To date,
multimedia presentations are the latest and most versatile
audiovisual teaching aid available to teachers. They have
revolutionised the presentation technology that has been used in
the past and they are a very efficient, exciting teaching and
learning tool.
PowerPoint
is the most useful software to use and the slides are projected
through a data/multimedia projector from a computer onto a
screen, wall or interactive white board in the classroom
situation.
The slides are in colour,
can be animated and may have sound effects to go with the
illustrations and material.
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PowerPoint as
a teaching tool in Herzlia Science laboratories:
John Bransby,
joint Head of Science and a Vice Principal at Herzlia High
School, has spent the past 15 months developing, writing and
testing PowerPoint teaching packages for the teaching of Science
in Grades 10, 11 & 12.
There are
1500 animated, coloured PowerPoint slides that cover the whole
Science syllabus for these Grades and when used together with
textbooks, the OHP and the board, together with PowerPoint
handouts, make for very effective, interesting lessons on the
theory sections of the Science syllabus for the learners.
Both
teachers and learners really appreciate and enjoy this exciting
new format for a theory lesson presentation in the Science
laboratory. Obviously you still need to use and do exercises
from the textbook, use worksheets with long questions, MCQ
worksheets and ensure that the learners do as much practical
work as possible.
In a typical
theory lesson, learners have their textbooks and PowerPoint
handouts open on the desk in front of them while the teacher
uses the PowerPoint presentation and elaborates further on the
board. The teacher continues to talk about the components of the
slide, asks questions of the learners and ensures they write
down extra material from the board in the space on the handouts
and thus the lesson is consolidated for every learner. Learners
are also encouraged to ask questions about the slides. This
format thus enables the learner to see, hear, talk and write
about what is being taught and learned and this facilitates
maximum retention of material and ideas by the learner.
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OHP
Transparencies from PowerPoint slides:
It is very
easy to convert the PowerPoint slides into black and white OHP
transparencies for use on an OHP – if one has an OHP, but does
not have the facility to do multimedia projections in the
classroom situation. You can thus make 900 OHP slides from these
packages.
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Handouts of
PowerPoint slides and OHP transparencies:
The teacher
can easily make handouts for the learners from the slides in
which 2, 4 or 6 slides are printed per side of an A4 sheet of
paper and they can be duplicated and used as study aids by the
learners.
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Advantages of
the PowerPoint format as a teaching tool:
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Very
flexible – change, add, hide or correct a slide the minute
before the lesson.
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Coloured,
highlighted, animated and having different visual and sound
effects.
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Can add
drawings, pictures, videos and audio at the click of a button.
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If you have
a computer and a projector, no additional equipment is really
required.
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Connection
to the Internet is possible and this provides many extra
possibilities.
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Suitable for
small and large groups – even a whole Grade of 200 learners!
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Projection
is simple.
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Slides can
be used repeatedly.
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During
projection, slides may be advanced, reversed and can be remotely
controlled by the teacher from anywhere in the classroom at the
click of a button.
·
Ideal for
teaching new work, remedial, consolidation, tutorials, revision
work and when a learner has been absent.
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Can be
placed on the server for use in the school computer centre.
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Disadvantages
of PowerPoint format:
There are
few disadvantages and these are easily outweighed by the
advantages.
They are:
Cost of
hardware - a new projector costs about R6 000. You can however
use an old computer – preferably a laptop. Obviously the
computer needs PowerPoint software.
Requires
necessary expertise, time etc. to prepare slides.
For improved
security, the projector should preferably be attached to the
ceiling.
You cannot
see which slide is coming up next – so ensure that you are
familiar with the order of your presentation.
Projector
bulbs normally last 1000 hours or more and are quite expensive
to replace.
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Making your
own PowerPoint slides:
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The background for your slides must always be dark
– black, dark blue, dark red or a combination of 2 colours.
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Writing and
drawings should always be in light colours such as white, pale
yellow etc. – depending upon the colour of the background.
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Do not put
too much information onto one slide.
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Use a font
that is easy to read such as Arial, Comic Sans, Tahoma etc.
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Font sizes
should be about 30 and even bigger for headings.
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There should
not be more than 6 or 7 words per line with a maximum of 40
words per page – otherwise it is too cramped.
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Animate each
slide so that learners focus on each part of the slide - as it
shows up on the screen.
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Only use 1,
or at the most 2 messages and/or ideas per slide.
Many people
believe that this format can be successfully used in virtually
any subject. The limitations of this medium are basically
determined by the creativity and character traits of the
teacher! Truly – ‘the sky is the limit’.
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Remember:
‘If
you do what you have always done, don’t be surprised if you get
what
you have always got!’
Is it not
time for us to become more creative in our lessons?
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CD Rom discs are also available
in Maths & Maths Literacy for these Grades as well.
For more information, John Bransby may be contacted
at his school e-mail: jbransby@herzlia.com and
samples of his PowerPoint material can be viewed at: www.mathsandscience.com |
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