What is PowerPoint?

PowerPoint is a user-friendly technology, that is used to create and showcase visual presentations. 

Pedagogical advantages 

On this page you will not find a list of dos and don'ts concerning PowerPoint or how best to convey one's knowledge through one's slideshows. We assume that, as an educator, you, in all likelihood, know a lot of the pros and cons concerning the use of PowerPoint for educational purposes. Instead, this page will provide you with descriptions of some of the opportunities PowerPoint provides, when using it as a learning technology. The hope is that you will be inspired to use PowerPoint in new ways during your teachings. 

To provide an example, if you provide your students with your PowerPoint presentation before the lesson, or print a copy of it to be handed out during the lesson, it aids the students in being more active in their note taking during the lesson. However, some educators feel that providing the PowerPoint presentation beforehand, makes it more difficult for the students to focus on the lesson as it occurs. The educator's job, in this instance, is to navigate whether it is more beneficial to provide the PowerPoint before the lesson, or more beneficial to wait until after the lesson's completion. This depends on the educational goals of the lesson or the composition of students participating in the lesson.  

Another way in which you can use PowerPoint is that you can systematize a discussion, while documenting the results of the discussion, in your PowerPoint in real time. By doing this you will achieve higher involvement and engagement from your students, and they will have the opportunity to read and write down the points of the discussion that have been verbalized during the lecture. This could be calculations, suggestions for academic methods or theories, pros and cons of a specific case and so on.  

As an educator you also have the option to divide the students into groups and have them prepare a PowerPoint presentation, that they then have to present to the class. Instead of giving them an open assignment surrounding a given topic, you might support your students by providing a template, where the different elements you wish discussed have been defined. The benefit of this is, among other things, that the students actively consider and discuss the material in groups. Thereby the students are activated and engaged, gain practice in speaking in front of an audience and, if you let the students provide feedback for each other, train their ability to provide constructive criticism. 

INSPIRATION

PowerPoint has many different applications and at CDUL we have many ideas as to how to use them. If you need inspiration as to how you can use PowerPoints many applications in a more dynamic way, then do not hesitate in contacting us.

ACCESS

Microsoft PowerPoint is part of the Office 365 package. If you wish to access to Office 365, you can find information on how to do so here.

GDPR

Office 365 is used at AAU in agreement with Kontaktenheden. Therefore, you can safely use Office 365 for educational purposes.