Onward!
My powerpoint was designed to instruct a 2nd or 3rd grade classroom on some of the differences between lifestyles in Thailand and America.
My experience is somewhat educated, as I spent a month there last fall working in a school. In retrospect, a month seems like such a brief period. At the time, though, it was a pretty intense undertaking.
In the presentation I used very simple examples and descriptions. If I had more time, I like to think I would have given it a crisper, more inviting look. Also I'd have tweaked the content so that every word and image was the best possible selected.
Even though to many, handouts in classes may seem like a waste of time and trees, I am a strong believer in handouts being essential. Giving a student something to hold, review, fold, take home, unwrap, customize, and decipher is an excellent way to solidify the points whatever way is best for them. They can easily correspond to multimedia presentations and examples, but each belongs to each student, and that is his or her personal, moldable material for learning.
So I really got a lot out of the introduction to a concept as simple as a Wiki. I feel like I should have been aware that such a thing, even in it's basic standard form, existed for networking ideas, but I didn't! From what I understand, Google's newest trial program Google Wave is similar to a Wiki (plus many, many other things), although I'm having a hard time getting a feel for what exactly it is as I play with it's beta version.
I would be very interested to hear Google Wave adequately summarized in a few, easy-to-decipher sentences.
You have such a good spirit! I like how you feel towards giving handouts- I feel the same way too! I always love to have a hard copy of something in my hand.
ReplyDeleteYour PowerPoint topic seemed very interesting! It's cool that you have your own personal experience to teach about. Also, I agree with you that handouts are often essential.
ReplyDelete