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I know PowerPoint is not the most popular kid on the block these days.  Without sounding too much like a conservative talking about gun control, I have to confess that I’m a firm believer that PowerPoint itself is not inherently evil, but people tend to use it in primarily evil ways.  While attending the workshop on Technology and Media at Friday’s CUNY Writing Fellows meeting, it was clear that has the potential to engage students in the classroom using visual media.  However, most of us are still struggling to come up with creative ways of using it which do not impose an artificially linear structure to classroom discussions and stifle students’ ability and willingness to communicate their ideas and think critically about the material.

Although I am still one of those people who are constantly trying to come up with better uses of PowerPoint in the classroom, I thought I would share one way I’ve used PowerPoint in class that tends to promote engagement, discussion, and debate among students without feeling imposing.  It’s also fun!

This is Jeopardy!  That’s right, the popular game show format (along with many others) has been creatively employed in PowerPoint presentations using slide links and transitions.  There are several templates available online (just Google “PowerPoint Jeopardy”).  Ethics Jeopardy is one version I’ve created and used several times in a graduate level seminar on research ethics (although I’ve also used it in undergrad classes in social psychology and statistics).  I usually start by splitting the class into two or three teams.  One team picks first and gets to respond to whatever question (answer) they pick.  If that team does not provide an adequate response, the other team can steal the points away.  I usually give the teams a few minutes to talk amongst themselves before they respond.  Once we’re done discussing the first item, the next team gets to pick a category.  As you can see, the items do not have right or wrong answers, and are constructed to promote discussion, debate, and critical engagement with the material.  PowerPoint allows for audio and visual clues to be included, and this is especially fun to do with Daily Doubles.  My favorite is the Debate Daily Double, which requires the teams to take contrasting positions on an issue and spend some time going back and forth on a critical issue.  Final Jeopardy can also be used as great prompt for some low-stakes, in-class writing activities.    Generally, the game show format, although it seems quite corny, creates a low-stakes atmosphere and I often find students who do not normally participate taking more active roles in the discussion.  It’s also great for exam review.

In my opinion, this is just one way in which PowerPoint and other presentation software packages can be employed in useful, engaging, creative, and fun ways.  I definitely agree that PowerPoint is dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands, but I’m not ready to give up on it as a potentially useful teaching tool.  I’d love to hear others’ thoughts and examples of creative uses of PowerPoint in the classroom.