Slideshare, Powerpoint and Wiki's

These three tools should certainly come in handy in the classroom.

Slideshare is great for finding and using resources that people have put on line instead of creating my own from scratch. This can be a great time and lesson saver as Wendy pointed out in the tutorial on 15 July 2009.
Slideshare would also be valuable if a student is having trouble understanding a particular element in a subject, in keeping with Keirsley & Schneiderman's engagement theory and Oliver's framework, the student has a choice in the delivery style and control as they may be able to find the same information, presented in a different way, that helps the topic 'click' for them.

The most famous wiki I know is wikipedia. Wikipedia is a great starting point for students' investigation into an unfamilliar subject as virtually all topics are covered by someone in wikipedia. What needs to be done when using wikipedia is to inform students on how to check the validity of the information they find by checking the credientials of the person or people who have put the information up. There will most likely be links to further webpages related to the topic under investigation and this information can help to point students in the right direction. I have used wikipedia myself to kick start my resaerch for a topic that at the time I knew nothing about, then I simply conducted more reasearch at other sources to further my knowledge. A real world project, which is endorsed in both Keirsley & Schneiderman's engagement theory and Ol'iver's learning framework, for students could be to add their research to a wikipedia article or to creat a new entry on a topic that does not yet exist. The work would need to be of a high standard and the students work would be on display to the world.

Wiki's would be very useful for student group work as they can add to their page as they complete their research and reflections. Collaboration is an important part of Oliver's learning design framework and wiki's provide the forum for such student collaboration. All posts are logged and tracked so that it is easy to see which students are contributing and how to group projects. Students can then go in virtually any direction in the presentation of their group work by enhancing their wiki with numerous digital tools.
I could also use a wiki as my virtual classroom. If I was to load everything digital that I needed for a class into a wiki I wouldn't have to worry about leaving anything at home and being unprepared as I could access the tools I required from any computer with an internet connection. I could post homework or assignment details onto a wiki so that no student can say that they missed the handout! I would then of course have to ensure that all students had the access they required to a computer with internet connection to enable this to be a viable option (Blackmore et al. 2003).

PowerPoint...I have accessed a lot of material on PowerPoint through my lectures and, the PowerPoint set up allows me to print out smaller versions of the slides to jot my notes on which is rather handy. PowerPoint's if used correctly can enhance learning for visual students and for students like myself who like to have notes taken of the pertinent points and find it difficult, through a lack of shorthand ability, to take notes quickly enough and comprehend what is being said at the same time. Power point gives the students another mode to receive information through this should be the way things are structured, multimodal, according to Oliver.
PowerPoint allows professional looking overhead projections to be put together easily for use with a class or other audience by virtually anyone and the more advanced can embed movie clips and sounds to enhance the presentation. These powerpoints can then be uploaded to Slideshare and if this is used for a student project, it adds to the real world value that a student can see in the task and, according to the ICT report by Blackmore et al, this ICT use increases the students engagement with the topic, their attitude and study habits, and I see this as a desirable outcome.