PowerPoint & New Literacy in US Classrooms Group 6: Furman, Pierce, & von Isser

History of PowerPoint

Development of PowerPoint Ultimately PowerPoint has altered the way teachers teach,the way students share knowledge, and how employees present information PowerPoint helps save an incredible amount of time Throughout the years PowerPoint has added new features such as the ability to upload videos into your presentations In the past PowerPoint has had little to no competition Today, PowerPoint is virtually used in every class room by students and teachers!

Classroom Integration Integration can be tricky within school systems because of the constantly changing nature of classroom dynamics, curriculum, and technology itself. The possibility of integrating technology into a classroom depends on the willingness of a system to adapt to a constantly changing, learning, and growing process. Examples of Successful Integration Techniques: Online Grade-books PowerPoint for presentations School Districts with Technological Integration: Amphi School District Tucson Unified School District Catalina Foothills Marana Unified School District

Cost of Technological Integration Some technology will cost more to integrate while others can make an easy transition into classrooms that already have computers. Considerations: 1.The cost to install the technology. 2.The cost to teach employees how to use the technology. 3.The cost to update the technology annually. Examples of Current Technological Updates/Ideas: SmartBoards ($6,499) iPads ($499 and up) Computers w/ Office Other Forms of Technology: SmartBoards and More! iPads in Action!

Bridging the Gap (between tradition and technology) with PowerPoints Innumerable studies acknowledge that learning is not a fixed formula. Investing in new technologies enables innovative delivery of curricula (e.g. visuals, interactives, etc.). PowerPoint acts as a great medium for linking course content with the new world that students live in and learn through. This is key provided the course content may seem less relevant to these new- age learners without placing it the right context. PowerPoint Presentations, among other adaptive softwares, are becoming not only useful but even essential to classrooms. Furthermore, it is increasingly important to facilitate educators with new technologies in order to reach their students and potentiate learning.

New Literacies Until about 30 years ago, literacy had "become 'woven' (or as we might say today, 'hard wired') into the social structure" as strictly reading and writing competency. Now, literacy includes competencies in all kinds of communications. Encoding and decoding of words is just the beginning. Multimedia, for instance, which often relies heavily on the ability to navigate with new symbols in virtual environments. The pedagogy, learning, and classroom expectations transforms as technology creation continues, which calls for an evolving definition of literacy. A testament to this unfolds with the pages of "New Literacies: Changing Knowledge and Classroom Learning" by Lankshear and Knobel

Conclusion Technology, while costly to integrate, can help improve how students learn and the access that teachers have to materials for alternative learning strategies. It can create a passionate learning environment where students are engaged and actively involved in what they are doing. With more assistance, classrooms could be fully functional in a 21st century way. PowerPoints are incredibly useful for responding to the increasing need to connect traditional teachings with the new world technology and paradigm. Educators empowered with training in new literacies are better able to creatively implement such software and successfully teach their students. PowerPoint has proven to be a very versatile application as it has evolved over its relatively short live.

Works Cited 1.Lankshear, Colin and Knobel, Michele. New Literacies: changing knowledge and classroom learning. "From 'Reading' To The 'New Literacy Study.'" Buckingham. Open University Press.