Digital Blog Post E

For this blog, I chose to write about the concepts delivered in chapter 9- expressing creativity with multimedia and technologies. Chapter 9 focuses on presenting and sharing information through the use of multimedia and digital technologies. presentation software, commercially made and hand crafted videos, digital cameras, movie making software, and podcasts/video-casts offer ways for teachers and students to express themselves creatively across the curriculum. I thought this was a very important chapter to cover as these resources will be used throughout my teaching career and I will be able to apply what I have seen in my current classes as a student to what I wish to do as a teacher.

I wanted to explore PowerPoint and the next generation tools as this will most likely be my backbone to my classroom lectures. PowerPoint has been used by many teachers, of all grade levels and subjects, to aid in the classroom for many years. For teachers, who must continually present information to students in ways that will engage and inspire, knowing the strengths and weaknesses of PowerPoint is essential. By loading text, data and images into PowerPoint, teachers can produce slides for visual information displays featuring colorful graphics, pop up or slide in windows. and other attention getting techniques. As a student, I can see and remember the ways my past teachers have used PowerPoint.
What I found most interesting about PowerPoint was Tutte's critique of the technology. Theorist Edward Tutte argued that PowerPoint didn't in fact benefit teachers, but instead weakened them. He describes the advantages and disadvantages of this tool, Although I agree with some of his arguement, I think we must be able to expand our world and open up to the technologies our society has given to us. As teachers, it is our job to create a classroom environment that engages our students through technology, but leading them down that path with our past goals in mind.

Maloy, Robert, Verock-O’Loughlin,Ruth-Ellen, Edwards, Sharon A., and Woolf, Beverly Park (2013). Transforming Learning with New Technologies. 2nd Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.