The use of digital media for presentation has advanced a long way from the simple PowerPoint presentation. Learning materials need not only be presented face-to-face but can now be located online for access outside lectures. Materials can be presented online in real time, eg in live webinars or recorded and/or stored for asynchronous access.
Presentation no longer has to be a one-way activity as various tools provide the ability for collaborative work or real time feedback from teachers. The material of course can be supplemented with interactive tools permitting polling or live answering of questions.
Some examples of presentation tools include Nearpod, Apple TV and WePresent.
University of Brighton - using Nearpod with trainee teachers
The university uses a number of commercially available apps, including Socrative, Ubersense, Dartfish Easytag, QR Reader, Collabracam, Aurasma, Explain Everything and Pic Collage. Some of the benefits provided by these apps include:
- Increased student ownership of learning/content
- Greater levels of autonomy and control, from the student-base
- Enhanced levels of interactivity within contact and non-contact time
- Increased levels of student creativity
- More avenues for depth in discussion
- Far more provision for changing the learning space
- Higher degree of student participation and engagement in lectures
- More informed levels of communication between students and lecturers
- Ability to demonstrate and engage the student voice and receive feedback
- Meeting the student skill-set in a technological way
- Adding some relevance and realism to current trends in education
- Increased access to learning in and outside of the classroom
- Encouraging higher levels of effort in assessment tasks and non-contact work
- Increasing scope and provision for self-assessment for both students and staff
One use of apps is with the BA (Hons) physical education (qualified teacher status) students, who have been using Nearpod as part their teaching strategies. The app allows teaching staff to move their delivery away from the confines of the front of the class. Presentations can be delivered directly to a student’s device, fully controlled by the academic staff, and interactivity can be added to the slides to provide students with an engaging learning experience.
This interactivity can include video, audio, quizzes, drawing elements, images, web pages, social media elements and polls. It also provides a means of assessment, as reports can be produced from the assessed features, providing a method of obtaining just in time feedback, which can indicate levels of understanding. This can be particularly problematic within the restrictions of an outdoor activity.
Sessions can be delivered to devices live or set as out of class/lecture activities, providing a means of 'flipping' the lesson.