[Year 12 IPM] Re: OT Kahootz, 7-10 IT and Has VELS got it WRONG?

Fri Jul 1 13:36:07 EST 2005

Hi all 

The mechanics of using the software is one thing - but to present a good powerpoint presentation or website is also about 'design'. For example - year 7 students can all use PowerPoint and will happily build a presentation that goes overboard in that they have a different font set, background, colours, text animations and sounds etc on every slide - I have seen the same thing with web pages that they have built on free web hosts - they break every rule in terms of backgrounds, readability of fonts on the backgrounds, too many animated gifs, bad alignment etc. Knowing how to do the fancy stuff - yet showing some restraint and taste in the way it is presented are quite different factors. "Just because you can doesn't mean you do" is one of my well worn phrases. And of course they just love learning the CRAP theory - Contrast, Repetition, Alignment & Proximity.

By the way I find many Year 11's use far too much text on each slide of a PP presentation, they will have one bullet point with 200 words of text! This to me indicates a lack of ability to break down a slab of text into dot points - I tell them they must use the 'rule of five' (my teminology) - no more than 5 bulleted points per slide with no more than 5 words per point - of course this is flexible but gives them something to aim for. And it has to be reinforced to them that the whole idea of a slide presentation is that it will be presented to an audience via a projector. At first they are horrified by this seemingly unachievable restriction. But it is great to see that after some practice they can do this. So I feel as though I am teaching them some English summary skills as well as ICT - or perhaps just forcing them into putting what they have learnt in English into practice. 

As ICT teachers our job goes further than just teaching how to use the software - it is also about visual design, formatting and using accepted conventions - I would say the total package of what we are teaching them is rarely found in others who have not got the experience in our area.

Hope you are all enjoying your break. 
Cheers 

Ros Meadows
Bentleigh SC
9579 1044
meadows.roslyn.m at edumail.vic.gov.au

"Furious activity is no substitute for understanding." H. H. Williams 

________________________________

From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Bill Kerr
Sent: Thu 6/30/2005 7:56 AM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] Re: OT Kahootz, 7-10 IT and Has VELS got it WRONG?

I agree with the thematics and logic of Robert's well argued analysis but note that it is confined to some well established applications, PowerPoint and Word.

Nevertheless, I believe through observation that many non IT specialists do not actually know the features of these applications very thorougly at all - the problem of generational change

Furthermore, there are many new applications ideal in theory for integrated curriculum that are even less well known by most teachers. Here are some such activities / lessons:

1. simulate buying something through amazon or eBay, explain about cookies, notice and comment on the various features available at these sites
2. ask questions and find answers on wikipedia and post your own entry to wikipedia
3. conduct advanced search using google and explain the use of AND, OR, NOT, ""
4. create and account and upload pics to flickr, discuss appropriate image formats and importance of compression

All of the above could be in the "integrated curriculum". None of these questions / tasks is particularly hard for students provided they have a teacher who is web savvy. But it would be a huge mistake to put it into the integrated curriculum because many teachers do not have this knowledge.
-- 
Bill Kerr
http://billkerr.blogspot.com/
http://intranet.woodvillehs.sa.edu.au/kerrbi/index.htm

On 6/28/05, Robert Timmer-Arends <timmer at melbpc.org.au> wrote: 

	Hello Roland

	I am not sure what you are refering to when you write:
	>>I lament to date the lame use of this slideshow software to organise so
	called 'research projects' by my non-IT colleagues.<<

	but I do agree that many (most? all?) teachers allow PowerPoint (or
	equivalent) to be badly used by students as a presentation tool for
	projects. More importantly though, by doing this they miss what I think is
	one of the powerful learning opportunities that something like PowerPoint
	offers: the need to summarise and to capture and express succinctly key
	ideas.

	There has been a lot of discussion lately about VELS and the place of IT 
	education in it. To me there are two separate issues:
	1. who teaches the skills?
	2. what do students do with IT (ICT?) in non-IT classes.

	As far as I can tell all the anecdotal evidence suggests that the answer to 
	the first question is "an IT teacher, or at least someone who knows IT and
	gives a damn about efficient and effective use of the 'tool set' that IT
	provides.

	For education more broadly, however, it is the second question that is the 
	more important. I don't think it's good enough for anyone to insist that
	students use computers 'across the curriculm' if there is no educational
	benefit in it - using IT in English, Maths, Geography ... for the sake of it 
	is not good enough! We have to ask: how can a particular peice of software
	add value to my teaching? or what is it that this software does that will
	allow me to enhance the learning of my students; for example, what does the 
	humble word processor allow us to do? Well, mainly to edit text very easily
	(and then present it beautifully - but I'll ignore this aspect).  So how can
	this be used to enhance learning? In English (and other areas where report 
	writing takes place) students could improve their writing skills by producng
	drafts for which they then get feedback and then edit to get a better
	document - the computer makes this process easier; no laborious rewriting 
	required. Eventually (hopefully) the student will learn to draft, critique
	and edit their own work. Instead, it seems to me that the word processor is
	used purely as a presentation tool.

	Similarly PowerPoint and the rules of good presentation should be used to 
	make students work toward a series of summary points about whatever it is
	they are writing - being able to summarise something means that it has been
	digested and understood. Producing slabs of text on a screen is not just a 
	poor use of PowerPoint but also suggests that very little learning of the
	subject matter has taken place (and it really annoys me when teachers show
	off this kind of thing as some superior example of student work just becuase 
	it was produced for use on a computer rather than printed on paper! - this
	to me is where the real ignorance of IT use by non-IT teacher somes into it:
	they are to easily impressed by the 'gee whizz' instead of looking at the 
	content ).

	So, when it comes to CAC I believe IT skills among the teaching profession
	are not so much the issue, but, knowing how best to make use of any given
	piece of software in the teaching of a particular subject is (although there 
	may be a chicken and egg effect here!)

	Regards
	Robert T-A

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