Enhancing Student Achievement
With
Technology in the Classroom
By
Joe R. Harwell, ZHS
Creating Opportunities for Every Learner to Experience Success
One of the major challenges continually facing teachers in the classroom today is getting students to make logical and relative connections with lesson standards. Technology is a teaching tool that will increase the odds of that happening. The lesson presented here is an example of how technology in the form of both networked and stand-alone computers using simple, conventional, and readily available software can be used for facilitating learner success. Also, the lesson plan serves to illustrate several of the many diagnostic and prescriptive considerations teachers must use for presenting material to students when viewed from the perspective of accommodating individual differences.
Example Lesson #1: The Heart and Basic Circulation
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Creating with PowerPoint and Its Benefits
This lesson was prepared with Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for use on both a classroom stand-alone and networked computer. After saving the conventional presentation as a PowerPoint presentation (ppt) file, it was then saved in conventional html format (hypertext markup language-the language of the World Wide Web). Then both the ppt file and the html version were posted to the web site. This gives the user the option to choose the format necessary for the immediate situation.
Situation #1: a teacher has access to the World Wide Web (www) but the class does not. The teacher has some stand-alone computers in the classroom. The ppt file can be downloaded from the site. A ppt viewer can be downloaded for free use with the ppt file.
Situation #2: The teacher has within the classroom both/and either/or Internet/Intranet accesses to a web server on a network. After posting to the server, the ppt html page becomes directly accessible for as many who have a networked computer.
The teacher has successfully utilized the tools at hand to present the lesson in a form ready to use. Teachers after only a minimal amount of experience with PowerPoint (a very powerful presentation program) with the free PowerPoint viewer, can prepare, present, and post lessons on a web server for networked or stand-alone computer usage.
Diagnostics and Prescriptions for Individual Learning Differences
The rationale behind creating the Heart/Circulation presentation considered an individual student's need that is typically encountered by teachers in the classroom. The need in this case was the probability of the student's lack of organizational skills to successfully arrange material in a logical sequence within a meaningful and cohesive framework.
By using PowerPoint for a standard presentation, all the "fat" of the lesson was cut away leaving only the "lean" meat of the essential lesson content. Also, simple illustrations of essential content were created with a very basic paint program included with Windows 95 to complement the abstract textual presentation through repetitive reinforcement via a concrete conceptual representation.
The PowerPoint file format that runs within the ppt viewer is actually preferred over the www html format presentation in this particular case for the following reasons. Each line on each slide is introduced individually thus a reduction of learner-experienced confusion; self-paced learner progression is allowed while maintaining rapid presentation of essential content to the learner; and the learner is kept actively engaged by way of the presentation controls themselves.
Students can easily be taught to use PowerPoint for themselves. It is an excellent program to summarize and compile lesson material for future review. But most importantly, it provides students with an opportunity to be actively involved in the learning process: an absolute necessity for their experience of success that in turn builds healthy self-esteem. And healthy student self-esteem contributes greatly to the overall orderly process of the day-to-day school schedule.
Students want to participate in that which they have experienced success. No one wants to be a part of a failure.
Conclusion
Students often need assistance in the "getting ready to learn" phase of a successful lesson presentation. At this critical transition point, students who are not "ready to learn" are more likely to become classroom management problems. Worse yet, they are non-productive learners. The teacher can meet this need through the use of simple PowerPoint presentations.
First, main ideas with supporting details must be gleaned from material too overwhelming for some learners. Then it can be logically sequenced within a cohesive framework detailed for the individual's learning level. Next, when PowerPoint is used, the information can be quickly presented and totally controlled by the learner. And finally, the probability of student success with its attendant benefits is greatly enhanced by actively engaging the learner.
Educational technology is a bridge that spans gaps, connects learners with resources, and increases the probability of success.
Terms/Concepts:
- PowerPoint -- Microsoft presentation software. Uses a slideshow environment that incorporates a wide variety of options to organize and present information. The 97 version has options to save presentations in hypertext markup language for posting on the World Wide Web. PowerPoint files end with the (. ppt) extensions and is a common way for referring to presentations (ppt).
- Hypertext Markup Language (html) -- The formatting code used to prepare material for use on the World Wide Web or for posting on a web server for multi-user access. It is a standardized format.
- World Wide Web (www) -- A networking communication protocol originally implemented on the Internet for combining graphics with text. It is rapidly being implemented within Intranets.
- Internet -- A worldwide networking system.
- Intranet -- A networking system with controlled access usually implemented within some type of organizational setting such as an educational institute or a commercial business.
- Stand-alone computer -- A computer that can function by itself without any network connections.
- Networked computer -- A computer that primarily functions within a network environment.
- Network -- A system where computers are linked together with network interface cards (nic), wiring (twisted pair cat. 5, for example), and a central computer (server) that controls/directs the flow of information (packets) using a network communication language (protocol-TCP/IP, for example).
- Post -- Transfer information to a server.
- Server -- A computer that functions within a networked environment which stores information for access by network users and controls access to that information.
Further Study:
- Standards-based Curriculum
- Understanding Education in Terms of Personally Created Objects or Artifacts
- Constructionism
- Constructivism
- Educational Technology in the Classroom
- Developing and Using Intranets in the Classroom
- Developing and Using the Internet in the Classroom
Check the Sabine Parish School Board site for more excellent resources!