WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at [1] dougbelshaw.com... [2]

Ah… Powerpoint. The piece of software probably most loved and most reviled in equal measure by most of the computer-using population. On the one hand Powerpoint has given us visual learners something to scaffold lectures and talks around that we are on the receiving end of. On the other hand, it’s led to the, frankly shootable, offence of reading from Powerpoint slides - sometimes with the presenter being somewhat surprised by what comes next! In what follows here I’m going to look at ways you can use Powerpoint as an effective, interactive teaching and learning tool…

I’m assuming that those reading this know how to set up at least a basic Powerpoint presentation, are not unfamiliar with how to use the ‘design’ aspects and can implement slide transitions, change backgrounds, etc. First of all, here’s a list of keyboard shortcuts that you may find useful whilst you’re using Powerpoint as a teaching tool:

• b = turns the screen black (press again to get back to the slide you were on)
• w = turns the screen white (press again to get back to the slide you were on)
• CTRL+H = hides the pointer and navigation buttons
• CTRL+A = redisplays the hidden pointer
• Home = goes back to the first slide of the presentation
• (number) then ENTER = goes to a specific slide number
• CTRL-P - change the arrow to a pen

(replace CTRL with the Command key on Macs…)

The shortcut in the above list - changing the arrow to a pen - can be very effective if you have an interactive whiteboard (or even if you haven’t!) The pen is by default black, but can be changed by clicking on the navigation button or right-clicking and going to Pointer Options/Pen Color. This means that if you haven’t got a SMART interactive whiteboard (with the coloured pens) you don’t have to have a floating toolbar over the top of your presentation. And if you haven’t got an interactive whiteboard at all you can still enjoy some of the benefits (albeit in a slightly more cumbersome fashion!)

[3] (click to enlarge)

As a teaching tool Powerpoint is also extremely versatile and useful. Due to its fairly intuitive and familiar layout, students can create more than just overly-elaborate, garish presentations with sound effects and uncalled-for transitions. I once went to a day-long INSET by Ben Walsh (author of [4] Exciting ICT in History) in which he showed us how interpretations exercises are possible in Powerpoint. This can be especially effective with poor writers or weaker students. For example:

[5] (click to enlarge)

[6] (click to enlarge)

Powerpoint slides can be hyperlinked to one another, just like web pages, using the Insert hyperlink option from the Insert menu. Simple websites can be created this way, but even if you want to keep things on your school network (or even just your computer via a projector) you can have different ‘areas’ of information. An example of this would be a presentation I came across (but have now lost) about the Troubles in Northern Ireland which I used with my GCSE class. It had various sections which could be accessed from a main navigation page. The various sections also had hyperlinks to relevant websites and activities. This meant that it created a fairly ‘closed’ system in which students could find out in their own way and at their own pace about the Troubles. Given the sensitive nature of the topic and the extremely biased (and sometimes violent and disturbing) websites of various paramilitary organisations, this proved to be a very useful way of approaching the topic!

If you have lots of time on your hands you can create Powerpoint presentations with literally tens or hundreds of slides. Students could then make decisions about information which would lead to another scenario/decision, and so on. Much better than the usual consecutive (and often chronological) scroll through an essentially passive learning experience! (more about that [7] here)

Finally, exploring the power behind Powerpoint enables you to come up with novel uses. Many have attempted to create, for example, a Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?-style game. The best I’ve come across is freely downloadable in my resources section [8] here (more on creating interactive games [9] here).

So in way of a conclusion, experiment with the features of Powerpoint. Try to break out of seeing it merely as a passive presentation tool, but actually as a learning tool which can be used to create ‘walled-gardens’, interpretations activities, and so much more!

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