Use of PowerPoint in Teaching Nursing Students

According to Marshall (2002), there are different types of technologies that may be used to enhance and aid teaching. This paper looks at how the use of PowerPoint without Bullet can be used as an educational tool to enhance learning in teaching students taking nursing course. This paper explores the use of PowerPoint without bullets in nursing education along with their benefits. It delves into the past nursing education practices and brings out the factors that led to the gradual application of technology in nursing education and practice. It also explores the factors that lead to its successful application in the medical field.

Background of the Study

Different technologies deliver various kinds of content they serve different roles in the classroom. He later emphasized that some features like spreadsheets like excel and database like access applications enhance organizational skills and also modeling software endorse the understanding concepts of math science . It is essential to reflect on how these technologies differ and what attributes make them essential as tools for education Becker (1994). Technologies used in classrooms in these modern days vary from simple tool based computer application programs like the word processors for example Ms Word, to handheld computers, presentation tools like Ms PowerPoint, closed-circuit television channels, and interactive distance learning methods. Even the handsets which are available to a majority of students can be aid learning (Prensky, 2005).

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Each technology is to be expected to play different roles in students. However instead of trying to describe the effect of all technologies as if they were the similar, you need to think about the kind of technologies that are being used in the classroom and their purpose. Learning using computers involves technology being used mainly as tutors and its role is to amplify learners essential acquaintance and technical skills and; also students can learn “with” computers which involves the use of technology as a means that can be useful to a diverse of objectives in the learning course and can play a role of resource to aid grow higher order ideas, make inquiries skills and originality (Reeves, 1998; Ringstaff & Kelley, 2002).

These software applications programs are some of the most commonly available applications of educational technology in schools in the modern day, along with word processing software like PowerPoint, and have been used in classrooms for over 20 years (Ravitz & Wong, 1999).

Teachers use DES not only to alternate lessons as it has always been, but also to offer ways for self-study, new topics introduction, and also to present chances to learn concepts which may be otherwise unreachable to students. DES also highlights two key assumptions about how technology can help learning. The first one being the teachers capability to act together with the program is scarcely distinct in ways intended purposely to promote learning using the tools. Second, computers are seen as a medium of learning, rather than as a tool that could assist further learning (Murphy et al, 2001).

In the analysis of existing evidence of how computers affect learning, Marshall (2002) established strong evidence that technology enhances the teachers performance, widening their reach and also expand their students’ experience outside the classroom. He also suggests that there’s an exceptional need to understand the guidelines for success, which involves the tutor, the subject, the student, and the feeling in which expertise is used.

PowerPoint is used to present information to learners. It is particularly effective when pictures are used to illustrate medical procedures. The nurse educationist prepares them in advance by filtering through researched information so as to present only what is appropriate and presents it in interactive class sessions with the students. PowerPoint presentations are among the widely used form of teaching and disseminating health information (Bastable, 2007).

PowerPoint without bullets

The idea behind PowerPoint presentation is to narrow down to key points that the learner can easily understand and remember. It is possible to use PowerPoint without bullets despite the fact that the application defaults to the when one presses the enter key. By pressing shift and enter buttons together, the bullet format automatically changes to normal sentence structure. It is particularly important for such PowerPoint to have visual enhancement for the audience to follow through without getting information overload. It is important to note that a powerful visual enhancement completes what the speaker is verbally putting across without overly distracting the audience. The pictures and texts should be used in a balanced way (Atkinson, 2005).

Analysis and Evaluation of Use of PowerPoint without Bullets in Nursing Education

The use of PowerPoint without bullets in teaching has a variety of benefits to both the students and teachers. Nursing educators are faced with the challenge of explaining the students to get a high level of factual understanding. Lack of proper understanding of what has been theoretically taught is detrimental to nursing practice. If appropriate images are used, they will easily be understood by the learner thus making it easier to apply the concepts learned in practice. (Jones, 2009)

a) Benefits for students of using PowerPoint in teaching

The PowerPoint design is eye-catching to learners, and contains good learning skills, such as audiovisual, kinesthetic, and inventive by inputting the good and attractive multi medias, PowerPoint helps joint studying by having a multi involvement of students. It helps the scholars to be sure of their own learning, and gives them chances to display their work. It also has a functions not found on the black board. Absent students can over view them to catch up with the rest.

b) Benefits of the Use PowerPoint to Teachers

Teachers may use PowerPoint presentations to improve the effectiveness of classroom instruction in various ways and in every subject area in nursing.

The greatest benefit of using PowerPoint in teaching nursing students is that tutors can improve their lessons with them in their future lessons. As a result, teachers save time on giving instructional material, repeated speech and also writing on blackboard. In addition, PowerPoint can enrich the lesson information hence making the presentation more flexible and also organized. The main points of a lesson can be emphasized by the use of graphics, sound and animation. In addition to the mentioned benefits, PowerPoint may also be can be used to review the content.

The current societal and nursing profession expectations are met/not met by the use of this technology?

As earlier mentioned, the society is fast changing following the ease of access to information. The use of PowerPoint in presentation is in itself a shift from what was the traditionally known way of use of chalk and blackboard. The society has an overwhelming and insatiable appetite for new things; hence the use of PowerPoint without bullets is a move towards the right direction. However, PowerPoint without bullets belabors the learners as it is just like reading text. Research has shown that knowledge disseminated in bulleted ideas is easily assimilated that in mass text. The learners struggle to extract the underlying idea unlike in bulleted form where learners get to know the point and the instructor explains the idea by use of examples that relate to it. As nursing profession grows to match its demands for information, the trend towards ease of dissemination of such information should follow. The use of PowerPoint without bullets is not in line with that and therefore not ideal for application in the modern learning context. The bulleted presentation easily captures what there is to learn.

However, the use of PowerPoint in nursing has served to vindicate the well accepted theory practice gap . PowerPoint without bullets is ubiquitous in nature hence what the nursing educators say, in this case this tool is very different from what they actually do (Adams, 2006). Critics of PowerPoint have argued that it has limited use in learning for the nursing students that the tool does not facilitate the natural inquisitiveness of students but rather they just sit in and wait for the slides to be flipped through just like they watch movies. In this case its core use is to deliver hence leaves no room for debate. Some slides are usually so many but are just quickly flipped through leaving doubt as to whether adequate time has been issued to the student.

Nursing accreditation standards expectation

The nursing field has various bodies that offer its accreditation but it should be noted that the criteria by which a nursing school is measured against before being accredited is very rigorous. The curriculum of the nursing education should be one that is flexible enough to accommodate the new technological changes. For this reason, it is therefore right to claim that the introduction of PowerPoint without bullets will meet this expectation as the nursing education will be seen as complying with the technological changes. However, overdependence on the use of PowerPoint by the nursing educators will only serve to go against the accreditation criteria which require that superior teaching methods be used to execute the syllabus.

Students all over the world like simple and easy to understand facts that are not tedious (Ross, & Wirth, 2004). This need is met by the introduction of this technology. The use of PowerPoint without bullets is known to make learning more exciting as well as simplified. It however suppressed the requirement for the students to engage their brain and do critical thinking. This technology also leads to boredom and alienation of the students with their teacher. The student s skills diminish over time as they may hardly attend classes knowing the slides will be uploaded on the internet where they can be downloaded and read.

Philosophical Approach/Learning theory that informed Selection and use of this technology

According to Ross, & Wirth (2004), people are able to learn in a much better way from pictures together with words than from words alone. The theory follows assumptions that a human being has auditory and visual channels for processing information, that each of the two separate channels has limited capacity on how much they can hold, and that learning is an active feature of organizing, integrating, filtering and selecting information based on prior knowledge of the topic thereof. This theory that was advanced by Mayer seeks to reinforce the importance of one learning whenever new information is integrated with what he/she initially knew about the topic in question. The use of PowerPoint without Bullets was chosen with the objective of maximizing the concentration of the students and maximum internalization of facts being taught through use of narratives and pictures. This theory is relevant in that it highlights use of design principles that provide coherent verbal and pictorial information to help the learner to select relevant images and words thus serving to reduce the load for single channel for processing of the intended information

Areas where this technological tool can be used in nursing program

The use of PowerPoint without Bullets teaching technology, although it has had its own big share of critics can be very useful while engaging the learners in different cases. It can be used when the lecture is very long and there are chances that the students will lose concentration. In addition, it can be applied when you want to give out handouts to a large group of students. It can also be used whenever the subject being taught does not involve much critical thinking.

The use of this technology will require that the teaching staff in the nursing school not to only rely on the basic knowledge of use of computers, they are therefore required enroll for refresher courses in advanced courses of using the word apps as well as the PowerPoint presentation.

Change theory approach and steps to stimulate faculty to begin using this tool throughout a nursing program

This theory postulates that all professional fields are as a result of changes in attitudes, opinions and behavior. Change is the only thing that is constant and takes place through only two known ways, either persuasion or force. Because nursing is a noble profession whose actors and service providers are educated, there will be no need for the use of force; rather, persuasion will be used to stimulate them to begin using the PowerPoint without bullets technology. The steps that I will follow are as follows: Seeking the audience of the stakeholders; Sensitization of the staff on the need to switch to more efficient and faster technology to deliver lectures; Training of interested staff on how to use the technique; and Monitoring of how the technique is being used over time and making necessary changes

Conclusion

The need for linear and instructive approach to giving information is well achieved by use of PowerPoint without bullets. This technique captures the imagination of the learners following the pictures that are presented together with the reinforcement delivered by the verbal cue of the educator. As much as a lot of criticism has been advanced against this technique, it is important for the nursing educators to embrace it so as to make their work better outlined and easy for the learners to understand. There exists the need for change to be embraced by all the players in the nursing field so that technological advancement can become a reality.