Powerpoint is not dead

Powerpoint is not dead!!

Funny that I read heaps of people saying that Powerpoint is not a 21st century tool in ICT. Well I disagree.

With my first computer I used Powerpoint like a Overhead transparent, of course like every body did, but now I make my presentation so interactive and so engaging that students are very enthusiastic in their French class ( especially in a country where languages are not valued at all). And I have to admit that my imagination is my only limit regarding presentations.

I don’t want to sound French ( you know complaining and arrogant) but I have seen a lot of powerpoint online that look very dated although they have been produced last Monday. Powerpoint is not about little animation that fly on your screen ( things like that do not make students interested, they are not mentally retarded, at least not all of them).

The best tool for me in Powerpoint is the trigger button - you know this word will appear when I click on this picture ( or something like that). This is where the presentation becomes interactive, and not because you have chosen a pretty background.

As you know (because of course you read my post regularly waiting for the next one with impatience!!) I have a Mac (yes a Mac with a capital letter) since ...I think May or something like that. I was so excited when the school gave it to me, I almost made the wheel. (because I am very flexible). But then I realised that in the Powerpoint which is supported by the Mac, there is no Trigger!!!! Catastrophe. I cried and I almost gave the computer back because for me Powerpoint is so powerful that I could not live without the trigger thing. (later we found a solution and now I have Virtualbox installed).

For me Powerpoint is not to be used as a slideshow. Do you use your computer only for word? Have you spend your school budget buying a data projector or an interactive whiteboard and you use them only to project Word?? For me it is exactly the same thing for Powerpoint. If you use PPt as a slideshow (I mean pictures move, slide change and youpi students should be excited) no wonder that you think that PPt is not a 21st century tool.

Ps: I don’t get paid by Windows to promote PPT (unfortunately!!)

Pps: If Mr Gates is reading this post ( I know he does coz he is very interested in what we do at Matamata College’s French department!!) I would not mind to be paid to promote your products :-)