When I was an officer with the Educational Technology Division (ETD) of the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore , some of the most exciting experiences I had was when I worked with schools using sophisticated Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment and Geographic Information System (GIS) on two projects (see here and here) . I was new then to the technology but I learned in a very short time the use of the equipment as I had to test it in the field for its potential educational benefits, and then teach it. GIS turned out to be a wonderful tool for me.

Today, I have a chance to renew my acquaintance with GIS and GPS. Only difference with what I did six years ago is Google Maps. I am now in the midst of testing a GPS receiver and tying it with GIS and Google Maps. I am keen to offer mys ervices to schools again so students can learn to use these wonderful tools. The use of this tools will of course mean extending the classsroom beyond the four walls of the traditional classroom. Learning can become more authentic. I look forward to sharing with you my experiences with GPS, GIS and Google Maps.

Have you looked lately at the way that teachers in schools have been using presentation software for teaching? Do most of them look cluttered and uninspiring? Do they look like nothing more than just digitized notes instead of paper notes with the occasional graphics thrown in?

In my view, when you see a lot of this, then it is not only because the teachers do not know basics of good design but it reflects a deeper affliction among teachers in schools if you like. “Death by PowerPoint” is really the result of how teachers see teaching and learning.

The fact that their presentations usually bear a  lot of text is a reflection of the state of mind of the teachers doing them. In their mind, they see teaching as just the delivery of information. Since the examinations-based syllabi that they probably based their teaching on is heavy, the information that present tends to be overwhelming too. Just get it through and “cover” the syllabus hence we see the piling of information on single slides. What you see on screen are likely to be just rehashed versions of the textbooks. There is little time for concept building or to linger on big and important ideas.

On the other hand if the teacher is concerned with the teaching of concepts, the slides would appear differently. You are likely to see more thought put into the slides and their arrangement. The teacher would be aware that they should be communicating what Nancy Duarte (2008) says are ideas rather than just slides. They will know that their presentation is to get their audience thinking. With that in mind, the teacher will try and build concepts using multiple slides. The teacher will used meaningful and effective graphics. Text used will be very selective and impactful. Teachers must not allow themselves to become cicumscribed by the tools they used. If teachers allow their pesentations to be more deaths by PowerPoint then they have, as Thoreau says, “become the tool of our tools.”

In my last post, “ICT: FutureSchools@Singapore, the MOE and the Amish”, I wondered about our tendency to “unleash” technology on society, and schools in particular. Marshall McLuhan was talking about this way back then in the 1960s.

McLuhan theorized that technology can have an effect on us because technology has that ability to “extend” or “amputate” our abilities. When McLuhan said that the “medium is the message (or massage)” he meant controversially that the medium in which we function will determine what we learn and not the content. One wonders if McLuhan is still around what he would say to the immersive virtual environments that students in Singapore will be experiencing in school soon. What abilities of ours will be extended in such environments? What abilities would be amputated?

McLuhan’s views was somewhat preceded by John Dewey. But it seems that this view is preceded by the Amish. Mcluhan espoused his views in the groovy, colourful era of the 1960s but the far from colourful Amish seems to have been asking this question as a basis for their community’s development far longer.