Hypnotizing Chickens with PPT

Here is what was said about PowerPoint in a recent article in the New York Times entitled "We Have Met the Enemy and He is Powerpoint".

• “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war,”
• “PowerPoint makes us stupid,”
• “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,”
• “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.”
• [there are]"serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making. "
• “death by PowerPoint,” the phrase used to described the numbing sensation that accompanies a 30-slide briefing
• sitting through some PowerPoint briefings is “just agony,”
• “Dumb-Dumb Bullets,”
• "Senior officers say the program does come in handy when the goal is not imparting information, as in briefings for reporters.
  The news media sessions often last 25 minutes, with 5 minutes left at the end for questions from anyone still awake. Those types of PowerPoint presentations, Dr. Hammes said, are known as “hypnotizing chickens.” "

The whole article is worth reading. What do you teach your students about PowerPoint?

Image from:
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/2009/December/091202/091203-engel-big-9a.jpg

Being a Node

I just realized that I am a node. Recently I have been thinking about networking in my own district and in my own school. Most likely everyone else has had this thought already, but I just realized how powerful it can be. In my district there are 10 people who do instructional technology at the school level. We don't see each other often enough, but we do support and learn from each other.

This morning I just realized that each one of us is a NODE on the network. That is an incredibly powerful concept (which probably the rest of my collegues understood long ago.) I have resources in people and experience and they connect to through me. They are each NODES that I can benefit from.

I have never thought about myself as a node before. I do have connections and experience and need to be sharing more and when I need something I need to think of my local nodes first.

Learning Step by Step

Last week I had another "aha" experience while watching some first graders doing photo editing. Several first grade classes have been coming through the lab doing a project where they have a picture taken of themselves dressed as a cowboy with a green screen and after making the background transparant they copy and paste themselves onto a background with a horse. They are then going to write a story about what is happening with the horse.

One of the classes I worked with has been coming to the computer lab and using computers in their classroom regularly. Although it was a challenge for them to follow all of the directions they had the background they needed to easily do the editing. They were comfortable moving the mouse and switching to different tools and dragging corners to resize something. They were comfortable finding a file in a folder and opening it, renaming it and saving it.

Another class has rarely come to the lab and when they do it is usually to go to a website and play some learning game. For them this project was more difficult. Some of them could not make the mouse do what they wanted it to do. Some did not know how to find a file in a folder or how to save. Working with this group had to be slower and was a bit more stressful for them and for the teacher.

I have wondered sometimes whether it makes sense to be teaching Kindergarten and 1st graders technology. This was a definite example of how all of the experiences they have will help them as they do other things in the years to come. I don't want to underestimate what these kids can do. It is pretty amazing.