Creative Way to Use PowerPoint: New Trick with an Old Technology

When you hear the word PowerPoint, what do you immediately think of? Be honest! Do you think of paragraphs of information sandwiched onto a single slide? Are you about to have an anxiety attack if you hear one more student "read" their presentation word for word?

We as educators are guilty of killing PowerPoint! :) Perhaps you may find some humor in Don McMillan's Death By PowerPoint

PowerPoint as a Timeline? 

Today I tried something different. I created a presentation containing a timeline of important historical events.

I then created a separate PowerPoint for my students, which students were able to access from my website. I removed the dates and rearranged the slides, so that my students would have to drag and drop slides into an order that made sense.

How it Benefits All Students!

After the time was up, we began to go over the historical events. I had never seen my students so engaged about history before!

As we progressed through the answers, students would add dates, notes, and arrange slides in the proper order. It was the perfect study tool for my hands-on and visual learners! The best part was that students with visual disabilities could zoom in and out to see the text better.

Do you have a cool way to use #PowerPoint? I would love to hear about it!