Current Article All Articles About the Author Q&A Podcasts Teachnology Blog

Picture this:

"What will happen," asked Mr. Descartes, "if we change this 2*x to 3*x?" The students looked at the sloping line on the x-y graph displayed on the projection screen. "The line will move up," said Johnny in the second row. "No, it will stay in the same place but get steeper," countered Susie in the back row. "But the y-intercept will move from 2 to 3," suggested Luke. The teacher changed the equation to y = 3*x + 1, clicked the OK button, and they all watched the graph change. After discussing who was right (Susie), and figuring out why by manipulating the equations and images on the screen, Mr. Descartes explained the concept of slope and other ideas in coordinate geometry.

"They fly," cried José in the back row. "They turn into caterpillars," suggested Mary in the front row. With each suggestion, Mrs. Piaget created a new circle and typed in what the student said. This was a brainstorming session on butterflies for second grade science. The teacher stood at her computer, while the students watched the web of circles on the projection display grow as they added new ideas. "They eat flowers," said Buddy in the third row, "and they all take vacation in Mexico." By the end of the session, the class had created an interwoven web of facts and concepts about butterflies, and each went home that day with a printed copy.

"She could make that first sentence stronger by using active verbs," suggested Molly as her classmate's essay was displayed on the projection screen. "Rather than 'It was raining and the sky was gray,' she might write something like 'Gray clouds spat drops of soaking precipitation.'" "What's precipitation?," asked Jimmy. The teacher entered into the commentary with a short lesson on style, selecting the right word to fit the audience and the setting. By the time the class was over, the writing sample had improved considerably, and the entire class learned some lessons on clear expression.

These are not unusual lessons -- these topics have been a staple of the curriculum for centuries. What's new and different is that these teachers are using their computer as a chalkboard. Connected to a projector and displayed on a screen, the computer enables a level of quality and interactivity impossible to achieve with chalk and slate. This week's article looks at how the new chalkboard can enhance teaching and learning in a variety of settings.

As computer projectors drop in size and price and complexity, and as more and more classrooms are equipped with ceiling-mounted units, teachers are faced with a new tool for presentations and discussions. How can this tool help us to do a better job?

Teacher Presentations

Our first thought in seeing a projector in the classroom is of the illustrated lecture -- the PowerPoint slide show on The Battle at Gettysburg or The Pythagorean Theorem, carefully prepared and effectively delivered by the teacher to a rapt classroom full of awestruck class of students. And indeed, this can be a good way to use such a device. Compared with a chalkboard, the computer opens up many new media possibilities -- maps, photos, diagrams, animation, as well as a format that keeps student attention and allows good pacing of the delivery. You can learn some ideas for creating these kinds of presentations in the articles from this series entitled How to Make a Slide Show with PowerPoint, Animation with PowerPoint, and Math Equations in Word and PowerPoint.

But this is not the only kind of teacher presentation that the projector enables. Teachers can also use the computer interactively with the class, as in the examples described above. They can open a tool such as Interactive Physics, or a graphing calculator, or Inspiration, and use it in real time to explain a concept of demonstrate a relationship. A live spreadsheet can become the focus of a math lesson, a word processor can serve as the centerpiece an interactive writing lecture, and a series of images can form the content of an art demonstration by the teacher. Like the chalkboard, the content on the display can be created and changed in real time by the teacher as he works with the class -- it need not be fully prepared in advance and then delivered slide-by-slide.

Where could your classes this week benefit from such a presentation?

Student Presentations

In the world that our students will face, computer presentations will be a daily expectation. Few crafts or professions will not require the ability to prepare and deliver a presentation with a computer and projector, or whatever the next generation of technology will provide in this arena. We should consider in each of our classes a requirement for students to stand up in front of the class and make an oral presentation supported by a computer and projector. It need not be fully interactive -- a simple slide show might be a good starting point -- but it should require planning, preparation, and public delivery.

This kind of exercise turns students from passive listeners into creative authors, and prepares them well for their careers beyond school. Planned properly, these student presentations can supplement the content the class got from the teacher. So rather than have all students present on the same topic, assign each one a different topic, and assign most a topic not already presented by the teacher.

How can you work a student computer presentation into your curriculum this year?

Class Discussions

The display on the big screen can also serve, as illustrated above, as a focus for a class discussion. All can see the same image or words or diagram, and the teacher can use the mouse to point at or highlight certain aspects, to guide and concretize the ideas under review. Questions can be posed on the big screen, changes can be made, new material can be added, to keep the discussion going. As we saw in the butterfly example, the results can in many cases be preserved for later use, or printed, or placed on a Web page.

Few of us are adept at using the computer screen as easily as we can use a chalkboard. Like anything else, you need to practice. I have watched math teachers write equations with Microsoft Equation Editor faster than they can with chalk; English teachers tell me they can type on the computer faster and neater than they can write with chalk; I have seen art teachers draw more freely (and in full color) with the computer and projector than with other methods. And all of these result in works of much higher quality, visibility, and preservability than with a chalkboard. Give it a try.