Reflections: Week 6: Interactive Power Point and engaging students.

Week 6 is over and has left me with a lot of thoughts and learnings. I have done and learnt those things during this period which to this time were unknown and unheard of. But the interesting thing was that during the course of discussion with my colleagues, many solutions to the existing challenges were discovered. I would not say that I "invented" them, but yes, I did discover some of the solutions for myself. 

Some of the things that I learnt this week are: 

LEARNINGS

POWER POINT and PREZI

I have learnt it finally, 'yes' I say to myself, I could do it. I could finally make a power point presentation with hyperlinks that 'do' work; they jump to a new slide and take you to a new window on the web. Thanks to the weekly task and the reading material, I could do it finally. We were also introduced to a very interesting and easy to use tool that helps one create interactive presentation called "Prezi". I admit that it was very interesting and easy to use and I might have been finally saved from learning to insert hyperlinks in an MS Office Power Point. But, I chose to do it because at the back of my mind, I wanted to clear this block that I could never do it. 

Some of the learnings about making interesting power points are:

1. Minimizing the number of slides. Overuse of text is to be avoided.

2. Reading out or parroting a power point is like reading from a text book and should also be avoided.

3. The presenter has to keep a blank screen off and on so that the students focus on the teacher from time to time. 

4. Giving the students time to check out the (slide) visual and then following it with the talk (audio) is a good practice. 

5. Making the power point interactive is a good idea to make it interesting. 

6. Rehearsing is important before delivering with the help of a ppt. 

Besides these, I was able to make a list of Do's and Dont's for ppts on the discussion forum after reading the study material especially from Garr Reynolds.com.

Making an "interactive" Power Point on "The Daffodils"

This was chosen after much deliberation. I was in many minds as to whether I should post a Jeopardy game or choose an interactive story, or simply teach a part of speech. All of this did not sound much challenging. I could find a lot of Power Points on the web like that and have saved them on my PC. The challenge was to be able to make a literature topic interactive. 

After much thinking, I decided to make a power point to teach "The Daffodils" in such a way, that when the students handle it themselves, they actually work with it and their attention shifts from one topic to the other. The other challenge was to keep it short and provide most of the information. I chose to take a bit about Wordsworth, some key terms about Romanticism and a little bit about the figures of speech. I linked the presentation to some youtube pages that included the reading of the poem by native speaker and additional information about the poet and Romanticism.

The work of the students does not end by merely watching the ppt. Towards the end they have a task to do which includes writing a practical criticism of the poem on this blog. 

Engaging Students (especially in large classes)

This was the focus of discussion among most of us in the discussion forum. We thought of various ways in which the students could be engaged. Besides this I also had the opportunity of reading Donna Shaw's article "Teaching Large Classes II-Enhancing Learning by Engaging Students." It raised some of the very pertinent issues such as:

1. Lack of structure in lectures.

2. Lack of or poor discussion. 

a) The students do not want to come out of their "comfort zone" and remain in the listening mode.

b) If the teacher pinpoints to a student  they become defensive. 

c) Some bright students "over speak".

3. Lack of interaction with professors (both in and out of class).

4. Inadequacy of classroom facilities and environment.

I had a very lively discussion with Jasmina and we were able to agree upon some common points such as:

1. The impact of body language on engaging students. Our gestures sometimes capture the attention of the students and sometimes can be distracting too.

2. Moving around the class is also a good idea. 

3. Projection of voice is very important. 

4. Using anecdotes and relating the subject matter to the personal lives of the students  gets them interested. 

5. A good teacher is undoubtedly a "brilliant actor".

Engaging Students in Discussions and Role Plays

This is another important point of discussion. I proposed that chits be used to moderate a role play or a discussion. Later, I thought that chits can be replaced with power points. I also shared "Lifeboat" activity which is a very engaging. I will post it here as well. It can be given in the form of a handout to the students, can be written on the black/white board or projected on screen using a ppt. The text is as follows. 

An ocean liner sank at sea, and 7 people escaped in a lifeboat. Unfortunately the lifeboat only has enough food and supplies for 5 people. 2 people will have to be abandoned. Sea contains hungry sharks so those people who have to leave the people will die. You must select the two people who will have to be sacrificed. Justify the reason why you picked these two and also justify the reason why the other five should live. To help you make your selection, the following information is presented. 


1.   A one year old baby that is travelling with its grandmother. The baby is extremely sick, suffering from a rare but possibly treatable disease.

2.   The baby's 65 year old grandmother. She is in good health but has been depressed since the death of her husband.

3.   The captain of the ocean liner. He is 31 years old and has 10 children. His wife is dead and he has no insurance. 

4.   A 43 year old pregnant woman. Gossip on the ship indicates that she may be a prostitute. Her heavy makeup and vulgar language seem to indicate the gossip is true.

5.   A 70 year old scientist. He was one of the original developers of the atomic bomb which was dropped on Japan during World War II. His recent research might possibly lead to a cure for lung cancer the next year or so.

6.   A 21 year old university student. He is an all American football player. He is extremely brilliant and has an IQ of 170. He has spent one year in prison for refusing to join the army.

7.   A 72 year old doctor who is a specialist in rare childhood disease. Some people think he is a saint. But most of them don't know he is a drug addict. The police are investigating him because there is evidence that he sells drugs to young people. 

Besides these topics, there was a lot of other learning like:

1. JiTT or Just in Time Teaching. 

2. Engagement Triggers 

3. Tasks for Interactive Segments

4. Think-pair-share

5. Question of the day, and

6. One-minute write

Overall very fulfilling week.