PRESENTATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES

Presentational technologies

Presentational technologies

Introduction

What is the best way to teach students? There is no answer to this fundamental question in education. Educators have debated different schools of thought, theories, techniques, and methods endlessly with no conclusive answer. Given this unanswerable question, educators have explored and evaluated many different ways of teaching students. The increased prevalence and capabilities of computers have offered educators new ways to present content. New technology gives educators more options to sift through in the search for the most effective teaching method. This software allows teachers to organize lecture outlines and include visuals and other multimedia.

Presentational technologies can help focus students' attention and engage them in the presented material teachers usually teach interesting subject with ease, but may have difficulty teaching students concrete topics, such as history. Using presentational technologies to enhance lectures might be a useful tool in engaging students, due to visuals and other multimedia. Presentational technologies lectures are not proposed to replace activities that are best learned with hands-on work, such as singing and playing instruments, but they may be used to teach about topics traditionally associated with lectures. There is limited research on the examination of the educational benefits of Presentational technologies on elementary level students . Library research indicated that many studies focus on students in higher education. Studies of elementary students include studies comparing student use of computers and student creation of projects, rather than the benefits or problems associated with teacher presentation. This study will add to the large body of literature examining the best ways for students to learn content material. The rapidly expanding use of computer networking in many parts of the world is transforming the way we communicate with each other, conduct business, and produce knowledge. In the context of language education, these possibilities have led to great expectations of how computer networks will enhance language learning. Given these possibilities, it is not surprising that many language teachers have enthusiastically embraced networking technology and have developed creative ways of using networked computers with their students.

History

An examination of the interplay between technology and curriculum must be sensitive to alternative views of curriculum—whether curriculum is conceptualized as a defined body of content or as a set of thinking, analysis, and communication practices that characterize a field of study. Equally important is the over-arching purpose of those seeking to link technology with curriculum—whether the goal is to improve implementation of system-sanctioned content and instruction or to fundamentally change educational practice. In this chapter I will suggest that these two dichotomies—between content and process and between status quo and radical transformation—have been around since the earliest efforts to apply computer technology to schooling. This chapter examines past and present trends in thinking about the linkages between technology and the core K-12 academic curriculum. I will describe how today, as in the past, technology is employed by some as a tool for transmitting the approved curriculum and by others as a means of transforming both what gets taught and ...