Power Point Presentation in Lectures - Research Paper Example

From the practical perspective, the utilization of Power Point presentations in classroom enhances students' learning, facilitates their participation and engagement, reduces boredom from educational process and improves student-teacher interaction. Students normally feel comfortable to direct questions to specific parts of the Power Point presentation, which evidently indicates they are engaged with the lesson and the presentation tool used in the classroom. The power point presentation also benefits the students who are absent.

Teacher can print a copy of the Power Point lesson and give this to students upon their return to class. Power Point presentations can be used on a teacher's web site. Parents and students can access the site and get key information that has been discussed in class. This technology can even be integrated with a web based programs like Blackboard, and assessments can be given over the material presented in the Power Point lesson. Stein, Silbert, and Carnine in their book Designing Effective Mathematics Instruction: A Direct Instruction Approach, made the point that the organization of the learning environment was critical to the success of learners: "The way in which teachers organize the learning environment determines how successful learners will be in constructing the meaning that teachers intend to convey" (Stein et al.

, 1997, p2). Following this line of thought, it is evident that careful preparation of the learning environment (such as through the development of power point) contributes to student learning. This idea is supported by Stein and his colleagues who note: "The use of power point is the perfect tool to allow for the teacher to follow their scripted lesson while engaging with the students and also provides that visual guide for the student to follow and help stay connected with the lesson being taught" (Stein et al., 1997, p.123).

The process of establishing a well-structured classroom environment that incorporates new technologies can help model the expectations mentioned above that are expected outside of the classroom while also creating a very constructive and effective learning environment within the classroom.The constructivist approach of actively constructing knowledge through personal experience contrasts with the traditional approach to learning which states that students are empty containers who store knowledge in the same form they receive it.

From the perspective of using Power Point presentation in the classroom, constructivists rely on teaching practices that are rich in student-teacher interactions that help the student come to the understanding of what they need to learn. These interactions help the student construct meaning and understanding. The role of the constructivist teacher is to assist students as they create constructions or frameworks of their understandings. It has been stated that there are six ways in which teachers can assist their students' performance: modeling, contingency, managing, feedback, instructing, questioning, and cognitive feedback (Goos, Galbraith, Renshaw, Geiger, 2003).