Power point presentations and such things

[LMD]

My personal preference in regards to electronics in school time is to keep it at a minimum for elementary, and that they will be able to pick up the skills in middle/high school. Part of this thought is that the software will probably be so different in 5-10 years that prioritising it now will mean outdated information!

 

They do use technology outside of school work and occasionally in school work (apps, typing papers, foreign language programs) so they are not without any skills.

 

This is in stark contrast to our school system's learning standards which require a technology aspect in every subject. Many schools require bring your own devices for every student in elementary/fyos and use "apps across the curriculum"

 

I was reading today about grade 1-2-3 kids doing power point presentations for school projects and 10-12 year olds being so proficient that they help their parents with work presentations.

 

Thoughts? Am I missing a glaring, important gap to mostly skip this stuff until middle/high school? Will my kids be unable to work in the modern world?

[deerforest]

I work full time for a large high tech company in which I spend endless hours with PowerPoint slides. It's not hard to learn, and I refuse to spend precious school time learning it. DD has the Apple equivalent, Keynote, on her laptop, and she can play with it all she wants, and she's made presentations on her own without me giving her any explicit instruction.

 

I feel that there is simply no advantage to drilling kids on business applications.

Edited September 10, 2016 by deerforest

[Arcadia]

It takes less than 30mins fiddling with PowerPoint to get kids proficient. They could just learn it when they need it.

[LMD]

Thanks! I agree! It took dd about 5 seconds of being shown to get word - now all her papers are multi coloured/fonts! She figured out khan and stop motion without instruction, I am confident that power point or the future equivalent will be no problem.

 

I'm quite dismayed at the direction our state's educationalphilosophy is moving with regard to technology in the classroom. I had a parent lamenting that they couldn't control screen time with an 11 year old because all their homework was app/YouTube based.

[LMD]

Thanks Sadie, yes I agree it's weird! Reading through the vels is so strange, they're tacking it into every single subject.

The primary school my kids were zoned for has compulsory ipads from prep (fyos) - at the parent's expense - and community classrooms, ie 60 kids in one room with 2-3 teachers. Recipe for disaster imo.

[Rosie_0801]

At our local school, the kids must have laptops from grade 3. The parents pay rental each year, which adds up to more than the cost of the laptop, and do not get to keep it when the child finishes grade 6.

[LMD]

Crazy. This school did netbooks from gr3 too.

[Arcadia]

Some of the schools here give kids Raz-kids or other AR program accounts from K. Then there is the computer test prep programs like Study Island, Khan Academy and some teachers use Spelling City for spelling.

 

My friend's children were issued ipads by their school.

[City Mouse]

I don't think a kid will be stunted because they did not learn to use PowerPoint or any other particular software at a young age, but I also think that there is nothing wrong with kids and schools using technology. It is here, why not use it?

 

Back in the mid 1980's when I was in high school, I had to hand write many long research papers with footnotes and bibliography. Now, my son does the same kind of work, but it is all done on a computer. He has even had to make PowerPoint presentations instead of research papers. I would not expect or want him to have to write out a research paper by had the way I had to back in the "old days." He uses Excel to collect data for science experiments and then has excel make the graphs of the data. I actually think it is great. He taught me how to use the graphing feature of Excel last year when I neede to graph some data for work. (Yes, we both know how to make the graphs by had, but the Excel graphs look much better in a professional presentation.)

[LMD]

I don't disagree at all, City Mouse, thanks for your thoughts!

I can see the appeal of a power point presentation as a project - no craft mess for a start! Unfortunately, my daughter loves craft. Excel is an undeniably helpful skill, but I'm comfortable with introducing it in 7th/8th at the earliest.

 

What I'm objecting to is the irrelevant insertion of 'technology use' in every subject in the state standards. I may be forced to more closely follow the standards in coming years so I am thinking through my aversion.

 

What I'm frequently seeing is 5 year olds using apps in class and being assigned apps for homework - then parents scolded for allowing too much screen time, 6 year olds being assigned power point presentations as homework, and parents of 8-10 year olds lamenting the impossibility of limiting screen time because the kids need their Internet connected ipad for homework. I talk to parents who shrug about what the elementary age kids are exposed to on their friend's devices because it's so inevitable. It seems crazy to me.

 

So, given the education department's emphasis, I was wondering if I wasn't considering some important aspect of giving my 6 year old his own ipad (not likely!)

Edited September 10, 2016 by LMD

[SKL]

I have a different perspective.  I think PowerPoint is a really efficient tool for kids to communicate.  I taught my kids PowerPoint last Spring so they could present what they had done for an individual scout badge.  They were able to combine bullet thoughts, a schedule (Excel), and a photo into a well-organized presentation that they presented to their leaders.  It was not a lot of work, and it got the job done better than any other option I could think of.  (In the past, they would forget what to say and act confused; it made it hard for the leaders to tell whether they actually did the badge work.)

 

They had a good time playing around with the different themes etc.  It was more fun than work.  One of my kids made a whole presentation about My Little Pony characters.

 

Not long after that, they had their 4th grade research paper, which they had to work on 100% at school.  They were required to use PowerPoint.  They pulled all sorts of pictures and data from the internet and dropped it into about 14 PowerPoint slides.  Then they each presented their report to the class.  I was impressed with the result.  Again, they enjoyed this, certainly a lot more than just writing and drawing their own pictures.  Plus, I"m sure their classmates retained more from the PowerPoints than they would from each kid standing up and reading a composition off a paper.

 

So I think it's helpful to let kids spend the 10 minutes it takes to learn PowerPoint, and at first let them play around with it for fun.

 

And yes, it is a life skill to process a large body of information and decide how to present a topic to a group.  It can wait, but it doesn't *need* to wait.

[SKL]

Oh and as for typing papers.  When I was a kid, I really liked writing and wanted to do my best, so I generally re-wrote my papers (longhand of course) three times before I submitted them.  It seems much more efficient to type the paper and then use technology to edit.

 

It seems to me that will leave more time for play.

 

Kids don't consider it drudgery to learn to use computers.  At least mine don't.

 

Yesterday I showed my kid how to check her grades on the internet.  She thought that was great.  She can monitor and make adjustments as soon as the teacher posts the grades.  That's empowering.

[Dmmetler]

My DD created a proposal on PowerPoint from scratch at age 7 to convince us to get her a snake, complete with finding an appropriate template, finding the information, and compiling it. It just wasn't a big deal.

 

She has since had to do many presentations using PowerPoint for her herp stuff (because that's what you do at conferences), and it simply isn't something I've taught with the exception of "honey, My old eyes can't read that text on that background".

Edited September 11, 2016 by dmmetler

[LMD]

That's adorable dmmetler! And SKL, sounds like your girls did a great job! I take your point that powerpoint can be an efficient communication tool, and a bit of fun, for kids. I imagine that this might be even more helpful with many kids in a classroom.

 

I'm certainly not opposed to technology, and I do intend to show them pp et al at some stage. But if we're confident and thriving with what we are doing, do I need to make room for it in elementary? I won't hold them back if they choose it, like I don't stop them playing with programming or typing up papers. I just can't see requiring it at this stage, let alone giving it the level of importance that I read in the state standards - ie, every subject, every year. Especially since you all confirmed my thoughts that it

it's a quick and simple tool for tech savvy kids to navigate. :)