Powerpoint+pitfalls

The first pitfall applies to any ICT, teachers need to remember that good teaching is still required when using ICT’s. Just simply incorporating ICT’s in a classroom is NOT a guarantee to a successful lesson and engaged students. Possible pitfalls of using PowerPoint as an information/lesson delivery medium are that students must have access to a computer to use it. Often, as much as 10 minutes in a lesson can be lost just waiting for students to turn their computers on and log on. A basic knowledge and experience of working with PowerPoint is also required to operate the program properly, therefore a lesson spent just on familiarising students with the program and functions may be required – again putting stress on an already time restricted curriculum. If students are working on a PowerPoint activity, the class would need to have access to at least one computer for every two students, if not one for every individual student. While the government has stated that it hopes to have a laptop for every student in a government school, this reality is still a long LONG way off from happening. Lastly, creating a new PowerPoint can be quite time consuming for teachers, therefore a PowerPoint that can only be used for one lesson may not be practical for busy teachers.
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