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On the 'informed use' of PowerPoint: Rejoining Vallance and Towndrow
Abstract
As teachers become more informed about the affordances of information and communication technologies and take up the new tools in their classrooms, these same technologies are always already informing and reshaping their perceptions and actions in the world. In seizing hold of PowerPoint, a teacher is not only aided, enmeshed, and constrained by the designs of its software script, the teacher is also surrendered to the language, imagery, framing, at-handedness, sensuality, and mediation of its symbolism and materiality. We should not underestimate how new media and educational technologies affect the concrete, subjective, and pre-reflective dimensions of teachers' and students' lifeworlds.
... These particular options are rarely explored subsequently. Nevertheless, the general criticisms informed the arguments between Adams (2006Adams ( , 2007 and her critics, especially Vallance and Towndrow (2007). ...
... (p. 50) Adams (2007) returned to her main point by insisting that such innovative features are not typical, and that a more habitual and uncritical use of the technology is likely to allow the teaching assumptions and conventions implicit in the software to dominate practice. She located the source of the problem in the primal and the unconscious: ...
... One option is to see face-to-face interaction as a natural form, offering a unique source of creativity and interactivity, threatened by the intrusion of unnatural technology. Adams (2007) was right to suggest, however, that technological constraints are apparent in all forms of teaching, including the use of a blackboard, which "invites a different set of teaching practices and pedagogical relations" (p. 232). ...
In this paper, critical discussions of electronic presentation software, initially focused on
PowerPoint, are reviewed. The potentials and pedagogic implications of newer forms, such
as Microsoft Producer, Prezi and Xerte, are then considered. Discussion turns to whether
teaching technologies, including face to face formats, constrain or prompt pedagogic
innovation. An argument is developed about using presentation software in a different
context to construct learning objects (stand-alone online resources), to isolate the effects of
the presentation software itself. Finally, non-technological issues which also affect actual use
are considered, especially in teaching subject specialisms like leisure studies.
... As regards PowerPoint, this dialogue is taken further in the debate between Adams [8] [9] and Vallance & Towndrow [7]. Adams starts from Turkle's observation that PowerPoint is an 'evocative object' [3] and discusses PowerPoint 'invitations' for teachers, as they appear through software default options when authoring a presentation. ...
... Vallance & Towndrow [7] introduce the concept of 'informed use' to focus attention on the possibility of creative work with PowerPoint, limiting the habit-formation process to the less informed users. In turn, Adams's [9] rejoinder brings forward the idea that even 'informed use' rely on the technological 'surrounding' that shapes authors' lifeworlds through 'language, imagery, framing, at-handedness, sensuality, and mediation of its symbolism and materiality' (p. 229): skilled use is not necessarily a subversive use. ...
We analyze the presentation software Prezi as an evocative object and a talkative technology that engages users in diverse web-based learning situations. Prezi claims to offer an alternative to a much ridiculed PowerPoint, and Prezi's rhetorical options indeed privilege storytelling and metaphors through spatial organization, movement, and visuals. Still, we argue that many educational prezis in psychology fall short of such aims, relying on bullet points in a decorated, quasi slide-based document. The Prezi company, together with dedicated commercial and professional users, create a talkative and plurivocal technology, with a flow of tutorials and showcased presentations. Nonetheless, we propose that these voices leave important aspects uncovered for educational users, and we argue that the Prezi team should redefine its author guidance strategy. The paper is structured as follows: we first discuss the significance of presentation tools for learning. We then go on to investigate what is Prezi and how we encounter it. We analyze several types of messages from and about Prezi, and we discuss how it is currently used. We conclude the paper by highlighting the main findings and reflecting on implications for research on digital rhetoric. Prezi is designed as an evocative technology: it explicitly aims to encourage certain ways of dealing with knowledge, organizing information in space, through movement and storylines. Its templates bring to the fore metaphors as a persuasive device; the most acclaimed prezis, highlighted through contests and various informal rankings, illustrate the presentation principle of a journey through a visual landscape, using movement to create surprise and perplexity by zooming in, and to achieve clarification by zooming out to the bird's-eye view. Prezi is also a verbose and multivocal tool: commercial and technical interests fuel a flow of messages and conversations about how to design prezis, aiming for 'stunning' presentations, for clarity and creativity. Prezi users have much to learn from 'tips and tricks' presentations and from illustrations in showcased prezis. Nonetheless, many prezis composed for classroom use, among those published on the Prezi platform, do not make full use of the tool's capabilities and do not really follow its invitations to storytelling, metaphorical argumentation and spatial reasoning. We have observed this shortcoming in the case of prezis about psychological conditions such as depression, bipolar disorders, and delusions: although such conditions can be greatly clarified through analogies and storytelling, the bullet list of symptoms and causes remains a dominant rhetorical device in prezi frames. Visuals are used mostly for decoration, and movements do not have other rhetorical use besides the creation of attention-grabbing transitions. We propose that part of this limitation derives from the business focus of Prezi, including its clarifying-and-encouraging voices. There are relatively few showcased prezis that deal with the clarification of scientific concepts, and there is no special focus on science throughout the corpus of prezi tutorials. Users could also benefit from comments on specific prezis, explaining how they do what they do: teachers and students may well appreciate the persuasive power of a stunning prezi without having the vocabulary to describe and then reflect on its rhetorical choices. This requires redefining the Prezi tutorial approach through an intersection between the currently disparate endeavors of 'tips and tricks' advice versus showcasing prominent, creative prezis.
... Teachers also need to be effective in integrating ICT into the curriculum, with teachers using ICT benefiting from a social network of other ICT-using teachers at their school. Some caution is therefore called for at the broad level in terms of where and how ICT might have an impact on second language writing pedagogy, especially in the area of the "informed use" of ICT in second language writing classrooms (Adams, 2007). For instance, if the main goal of a second language writing class is the development of argumentative skills, then teachers need to know what types of computer mediated communications are best suited to teach those skills (Salvo, 2002). ...
... By focusing on achieving a particular set of planned instructional outcomes which was getting information about famous people, Mrs Aminah overlooked and suppressed student autonomy and self-directed discovery. Next is the use of PowerPoint which could have been made more interactive to facilitate conversational dialogue between student, teachers and peers without much additional knowledge and effort (Adams, 2007). PowerPoint can be a powerful tool to encourage analytical thinking and interpretive understanding (Vallance & Towndrow, 2007). ...
... As regards PowerPoint, this dialogue is taken further in the debate between Adams [8] [9] and Vallance & Towndrow [7]. Adams starts from Turkle's observation that PowerPoint is an 'evocative object' [3] and discusses PowerPoint 'invitations' for teachers, as they appear through software default options when authoring a presentation. ...
... Vallance & Towndrow [7] introduce the concept of 'informed use' to focus attention on the possibility of creative work with PowerPoint, limiting the habit-formation process to the less informed users. In turn, Adams's [9] rejoinder brings forward the idea that even 'informed use' rely on the technological 'surrounding' that shapes authors' lifeworlds through 'language, imagery, framing, at-handedness, sensuality, and mediation of its symbolism and materiality' (p. 229): skilled use is not necessarily a subversive use. ...
We analyze the presentation software Prezi as an evocative object and a talkative technology that engages users in diverse web-based learning situations. Prezi claims to offer an alternative to a much ridiculed PowerPoint, and Prezi's rhetorical options indeed privilege storytelling and metaphors through spatial organization, movement, and visuals. Still, we argue that many educational prezis in psychology fall short of such aims, relying on bullet points in a decorated, quasi slide-based document. The Prezi company, together with dedicated commercial and professional users, create a talkative and plurivocal technology, with a flow of tutorials and showcased presentations. Nonetheless, we propose that these voices leave important aspects uncovered for educational users, and we argue that the Prezi team should redefine its author guidance strategy. The paper is structured as follows: we first discuss the significance of presentation tools for learning. We then go on to investigate what is Prezi and how we encounter it. We analyze several types of messages from and about Prezi, and we discuss how it is currently used. We conclude the paper by highlighting the main findings and reflecting on implications for research on digital rhetoric. Prezi is designed as an evocative technology: it explicitly aims to encourage certain ways of dealing with knowledge, organizing information in space, through movement and storylines. Its templates bring to the fore metaphors as a persuasive device; the most acclaimed prezis, highlighted through contests and various informal rankings, illustrate the presentation principle of a journey through a visual landscape, using movement to create surprise and perplexity by zooming in, and to achieve clarification by zooming out to the bird's-eye view. Prezi is also a verbose and multivocal tool: commercial and technical interests fuel a flow of messages and conversations about how to design prezis, aiming for 'stunning' presentations, for clarity and creativity. Prezi users have much to learn from 'tips and tricks' presentations and from illustrations in showcased prezis. Nonetheless, many prezis composed for classroom use, among those published on the Prezi platform, do not make full use of the tool's capabilities and do not really follow its invitations to storytelling, metaphorical argumentation and spatial reasoning. We have observed this shortcoming in the case of prezis about psychological conditions such as depression, bipolar disorders, and delusions: although such conditions can be greatly clarified through analogies and storytelling, the bullet list of symptoms and causes remains a dominant rhetorical device in prezi frames. Visuals are used mostly for decoration, and movements do not have other rhetorical use besides the creation of attention-grabbing transitions. We propose that part of this limitation derives from the business focus of Prezi, including its clarifying-and-encouraging voices. There are relatively few showcased prezis that deal with the clarification of scientific concepts, and there is no special focus on science throughout the corpus of prezi tutorials. Users could also benefit from comments on specific prezis, explaining how they do what they do: teachers and students may well appreciate the persuasive power of a stunning prezi without having the vocabulary to describe and then reflect on its rhetorical choices. This requires redefining the Prezi tutorial approach through an intersection between the currently disparate endeavors of 'tips and tricks' advice versus showcasing prominent, creative prezis.
... Bartsch and Cobern 2003;Susskind 2005;Burke et al. 2009), yet much of the research on the use of PowerPoint in the tertiary context asks the question of whether PowerPoint is in fact effective in fostering learning in university classrooms and, if not, how it can be used more effectively. An extensive body of literature based on empirical and often quantitative studies of learner perception and performance has been devoted to understanding the benefits of PowerPoint (Daniels 1999;Lowry 1999;Mantei 2000;Bartsch and Cobern 2003;Susskind 2005;Apperson et al. 2008;Roehling and Trent-Brown 2011), and much advice has been given about the effective use of PowerPoint, covering both pedagogical planning at a macro level (Craig and Amernic 2006;Adams 2007) and slide design at a micro level (Burke et al. 2009;Berk 2012). ...
... In essence, a decontextualised view of PowerPoint sees it as a technology which can be adopted in any classroom (e.g. Adams 2007). ...
In this paper, we propose a social semiotic approach to studying PowerPoint in university classrooms. Our approach is centred on two premises: (1) PowerPoint is a semiotic technology that can be integrated into the pedagogical discourse of classrooms, and (2) PowerPoint technology encompasses three interrelated dimensions of social semiotic practices: the design of the software, the composition of the slides and the slideshow-supported presentations, i.e. lectures. Using this approach, we explore how PowerPoint has been used in seven cultural studies lectures in an Australian university. Our analysis demonstrates how multimodal resources in PowerPoint have been used for pedagogic recontextualisation. More specifically, it shows how different semiotic resources have been deployed and combined to recontextualise two key types of knowledge – signifying practice and subjectivity – in the classroom discursive space, and how different strengths of pedagogic framing are achieved multimodally.
... Teachers also need to be effective in integrating ICT into the curriculum, with teachers using ICT benefiting from a social network of other ICT-using teachers at their school. Some caution is therefore called for at the broad level in terms of where and how ICT might have an impact on second language writing pedagogy, especially in the area of the "informed use" of ICT in second language writing classrooms (Adams, 2007). For instance, if the main goal of a second language writing class is the development of argumentative skills, then teachers need to know what types of computer mediated communications are best suited to teach those skills (Salvo, 2002). ...
... By focusing on achieving a particular set of planned instructional outcomes which was getting information about famous people, Mrs Aminah overlooked and suppressed student autonomy and self-directed discovery. Next is the use of PowerPoint which could have been made more interactive to facilitate conversational dialogue between student, teachers and peers without much additional knowledge and effort (Adams, 2007). PowerPoint can be a powerful tool to encourage analytical thinking and interpretive understanding (Vallance & Towndrow, 2007). ...
As the integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) in Singapore schools reaches a considerable level of maturity and stability, a pertinent question is: how has ICT integration impacted on pedagogy in Singapore schools? The present study attempts to address this question through interpretive, case-study research in two Singaporean secondary schools. The study found the use of ICT was limited in its perceived pedagogical value by teachers. A lack of appreciation and/or understanding of the complexity of the process or culture shift required for ICT to be implemented and integrated effectively into the Malay Language Curriculum along with conformity to policy directions resulted in underutilisation and uncritical use of ICT tools, and an adherence to the traditional method of assigning tasks and the maintenance of existing practices.
... However, media are not only sources of auditory or visual stimulus, media are lived environments (Allen, Otto, & Hoffman, 2012), and media with highly dynamic audio visual content and highly redundant auditory and visual information such as films not always overload the learners cognitive channels (Tibus, Heier, & Schwan, 2012). Moreover, multimedia instruction might reshape and constrain knowledge in particular ways and affect the concrete, subjective, and pre-reflective dimensions of teachers' and students' life worlds (Adams, 2006(Adams, , 2007Vallance & Towndrow, 2007). ...
The purpose of this research is to explore how to optimize the quality of the design of a blended learning experience. This research started as an evaluation of the effectiveness of the design of instructional hypermedia. However, a preliminary review brought out the need to study the larger context of preservice teachers´ blended learning experiences. The theoretical framework of this research explored the context, purpose and expected key characteristics of a blended delivery experience based on: educational and developmental psychology; educational technology; instructional design; learning theory; media ecology; and selected philosophies of education. Developing a design-based development methodology this research articulates a heuristic statement of design principles to examine the development of a preservice teachers´ learning experience and evaluate the quality of such planned intervention.
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https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/748d9fd6-8a2f-4be5-8c84-7c1731c527ae
... During the last several years, higher education has shown its sustainability, adaptability and transformable capability. Today there is increasingly a need to negotiate the complexities of the Information Age, which become more and more demanding as we are influenced by technology and the greater interconnectedness of nations and their peoples [1]. Our new knowledge societies require more flexibility in their educational structures to adapt more readily to new styles of learning and teaching, new intellectual and social needs, and new levels of skills development. ...
... A core premise of software studies is the need to recognise the role of software in shaping the nature of our institutions and our everyday lives; for software users (i.e. the vast majority in modern societies) to develop a more critical awareness of how software operates to both 'empower and discipline' people (Kitchin & Dodge, 2011, p. 10-11). For instance, Adams (2007) argues for the development of more informed epistemologies of practice and advocates for software design principles that are more sensitive to pedagogical practices. Others such as van Leeuwen and O'Halloran (2011) underscore the need for software literacy modelling and use by lecturers and students. ...
Software is not neutral. It comes with social and cultural assumptions that afford particular actions while constraining others. The notion of software literacy is emerging as one way to conceptualise the repertoires of skills and understandings needed for people to be critical and creative users of software packages and systems in a software saturated culture. This conceptual model is a response to current digital literacy frameworks which do not identify the implications of the choice of software on what can be achieved. Studies on information literacy and on ways of mastering software have tended to ignore the role of software itself. The study of software is only now emerging as a field of study. This contribution argues for the relevancy of software literacy as part of understanding the ways people engage with software and how its affordances influences knowledge representation, generation and critique. It will define the term and set out three progressive tiers of development towards software literacy.
... She could have elaborated further by showing some interactive slides demonstrating how the text writer weaves the speech by giving examples of the use of meaningful word combinations (Atkinson, C., 2005), specific terms and conjunctions to produce a continuous coherent text, as well as the use of quotations to influence the target audience (Adams, T., 2006). PowerPoint is able to stimulate students' thinking and promote an active classroom culture (Adams, C., 2007) and can be used as a tool to further enhance and extend learning. Also, as one of her students wrote in the student' reflection journal, Mrs Aminah could have inserted a video clip of a famous person giving a speech as this would definitely have helped students to listen and understand the lexicon and appropriate terms used. ...
With digital communications and technological media becoming an integral part of the new professional workplace and everyday lives of the younger generation (especially in post-industrial societies), comes the clarion call for educators to develop a more complex understanding of language and literacy and how to go about designing pedagogies that equip students with 21st Century skills. This chapter presents two case studies that examine the complex interaction of teachers, students, writing pedagogies, language curriculum and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The study explored students' experiences of using ICT in second language writing and the impact of ICT on writing pedagogy and the curriculum, producing in-depth descriptions and interpretations to answer a set of focused research questions.
... According to the 1998 national survey of Teaching and Learning, computer use in schools occurs most often in computer classes and not in core academic subjects such as math and science (). The presence of new computer technology in classrooms requires new pedagogical methods for the many and varied formats of digital technologies (Adams, 2007). Computer technology can play an essential role in learning. ...
A quantitative examination of factors that impact technology integration in urban public secondary mathematics classrooms
Software mediates almost every aspect of everyday life. None of these tools are ‘neutral'. They embody social and cultural assumptions about their use and all have particular values embedded in their interfaces and affordances. This article proposes the notion of ‘software literacy' to highlight a neglected aspect of digital literacies, and a key means of conceptualising the skills and understandings needed for people to be critical and creative users of software in today's software saturated culture. This contribution argues for the relevancy of software literacy as deeply intertwined with people's engagement with software and how it influences the way people come to understand, represent, generate, and critique knowledge.
Software is not neutral. It comes with social and cultural assumptions that afford particular actions while constraining others. The notion of software literacy is emerging as one way to conceptualize the repertoires of skills and understandings needed for people to be critical and creative users of software packages and systems in a software saturated culture. This conceptual model is a response to current digital literacy frameworks which do not identify the implications of the choice of software on what can be achieved. Studies on information literacy and on ways of mastering software have tended to ignore the role of software itself. The study of software is only now emerging as a field of study. This contribution argues for the relevancy of software literacy as part of understanding the ways people engage with software and how its affordances influences knowledge representation, generation, and critique. It will define the term and set out three progressive tiers of development towards software literacy.
mproving frst-year general chemistry student reading habits was the motivation for a systemic redesign of instructor-student-content interactions. A ChemWiki open-education hyper-textbook was designed for course readings,andbecameafocalpointforstudentlearningthrough a ?ipped classroom, weekly academic reading circles, and an online learning system. The use of pre-lecture videos was avoided in favor of reading assignments. Additional technology,includingmobileapps,wereusedtofurtherenhance engagement. To strengthen the peer relationships emerging from the team-based learning, formative assessments were redesigned. Dramatically improved reading habits resulted fromthissetofcomplementaryinterventions.
The aim of this chapter is to explore e-learning and e-teaching from a social perspective in order to show how the use of new technologies, like older technologies before them, must be considered in the light of human activity. It is hoped that such a perspective will allow the reader to better understand how, in one example at least, the use of new technology and the context of that use are integral to each other. The chapter considers how multipoint (i.e., multiple people) audio-conferencing might be used with higher education (HE) students undertaking work- or placement-based learning at a distance from their university base.
When Marshall McLUHAN famously stated "the medium is the message," he was echoing Martin HEIDEGGER's assertion that through our use of technology we can become functions of it. Therefore, how does adopting computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software affect our research activities and, more importantly, our conception of research? These questions are explored by examining the influence NVivo had upon an interdisciplinary phenomenological research project in health ethics. We identify the software's effects and situate our decision to use it within the Canadian health sciences research landscape. We also explore the challenges of remaining true to our project's philosophical foundations, as well as how NVivo altered our being-in-the-world as researchers. This case demonstrates McLUHAN's claim that new technologies invariably initiate new practices and modes of being, and urges researchers to attend to how we are both shaping and being shaped by software.
URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs120227
A number of free Web-based tools are available for distance librarians to create presentations and online assignments. The relative merits of presentation tools like Dabbleboard, Jing, Prezi, Tildee, 280 Slides, and Glogster, and classroom tools like Make Beliefs Comix, Picviewer, Photopeach, and Wordle are assessed for ease of use by distance librarians. Because most of these applications are cloud based, little or no downloading is required to use these applications from any PC. As long as one has an Internet connection, distance librarians can use these free and easy tools to reach out and touch students!
The study examines whether college instructors use PowerPoint differently in upper level versus lower level courses and whether PowerPoint differentially affects the learning and behaviours of students in those courses. The authors surveyed 191 students from 14 psychology classes and found that instructors teaching higher level courses use PowerPoint more frequently and are more likely to make the slides available to students than those teaching beginning-level courses. We also found that students in upper level courses reported greater benefits associated with the use of PowerPoint than those in lower level courses.
As university lecturers select and sequence materials for their teaching, a linear structure emerges by default. Such a structure is made explicit within PowerPoint presentations and may even be amplified as PowerPoint invites the lecturer to reduce content to a bulleted format. Such linear sequences have been related to passive, surface approaches to learning. The application of concept‐mapping techniques can support the lecturer in making explicit the underlying expert structure of the information being presented to help the student to make the necessary transformations of knowledge structures that are required for meaningful learning. The authors suggest that PowerPoint provides a concrete arena in which lecturers can reflect upon the structure of knowledge that is being constructed within their classrooms.
This study explored teacher perceptions of information and communication technologies in one secondary school in Samoa, in order to gain insight into recent government initiatives to introduce computers and other ICTs in schools. Phenomenology as an approach was deemed appropriate to the focus of this research in that it provided the framework for an in-depth exploration of how teachers view themselves within a particular event in the development of education in Samoa: the integration of ICTs in schools. Underpinning this study were assumptions about the nature of knowledge as being socially constructed as well as contextually situated. The research sought understanding of the phenomenon from the perspective of one group of participants. Data was gathered using lengthy semi-structured interviews in the Samoan language which were then translated into English for the purpose of data analysis. Significant findings include: lack of clarity amongst teachers regarding ICT in education policies, government rationale and strategies to achieve policy; teacher rationale for the introduction of ICT in schools included improvement of teaching and learning, student future employment and improved student access to technology. Teacher perceptions of ICT were mostly positive noting that its use contributed to higher levels of student interest, engagement, independent learning and motivation. As well, ICTs were mainly used to support teacher-centred pedagogies and contributed to the efficiency of teacher preparation. While teachers were keen to use ICTs in their classes, they were hindered by lack of ICT skills and insufficient pedagogical knowledge. Teachers perceived several obstacles to effective integration of ICTs in classrooms, which included: insufficient student and teacher access to computers; timetabling restrictions; a user pays system; maintenance and running costs; student plagiarism from the web and access to inappropriate sites as well as inadequate teacher professional development for the use of ICTs.
ii
Acknowledgments We appreciate the helpful comments,of Mark Zachry and Charlotte Thralls on an earlier draft of this chapter. This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (award #ITR-0085725). ii The PowerPoint Presentation and Its Corollaries: How Genres Shape Communicative Action in Organizations Abstract In this chapter, we examine how and with what consequences the discursive expectations of the PowerPoint presentation genre shape the ongoing work of organizational actors. We trace the historical development,of the business presentation genre over the last century, examine the influence of the PowerPoint software tool, and consider the evolving enactment of the PowerPoint presentation genre in a few organizations. Drawing on this analysis, we highlight the emergence of what we refer to as corollary genres that challenge our conventional understandings of genres as tightly coupled to particular recurrent situations and communicative,purposes. Our analysis points to an empirical blurring of genre expectations around conventional
In lecture halls, in secondary school classrooms, during training workshops, and at research conferences, PowerPoint is becoming a preferred method of communicating, presenting, and sharing knowledge. Questions have been raised about the implications of the use of this new medium for knowledge dissemination. It is suggested PowerPoint supports a cognitive and pedagogical style inconsistent with both the development of higher analytical thinking skills and the acquisition of rich narrative and interpretive understanding. This paper examines how PowerPoint invites and seduces educators to reshape knowledge in particular ways, and subsequently how this knowledge is presented to students in the classroom. The particular forms of knowing, relating, and presenting with PowerPoint are decided in part by teacher habituation to the software tool's default patterns, but also by the very nature of the presentation medium itself.
PowerPoint, the widely‐used slide‐show software package, is finding increasing currency in lecture halls and classrooms as the preferred method of communicating and presenting information. But, as Adams [Adams, C. (20061.
Adams , C. 2006. PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(4): 389–411. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]View all references) PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(4), 389–411] attempts to show, users may not appreciate that PowerPoint invites and seduces educators to reshape knowledge in particular ways to the detriment of analytical thinking and interpretive understanding. Using Adams’ material as a stimulus, we argue that digital presentation tools (along with other items of information and communication technology) can be utilized to facilitate conversational dialogue between students, their instructor, and their peers without much additional knowledge or effort. The key that unlocks the affordances of PowerPoint is ‘informed use’. This concept is explained and illustrated with an example that shows technology being used in a particular context to achieve a particular set of instructional outcomes.
Discussions about the use of information and communications
technology (ICT) based learning environments often assume that use is
defined, or at least severely constrained, by the inherent intentions of
the designer. However, typical uses of educational software involve a
subversion of the designer's intentions to match contextual needs.
Designers should consider designing for subversive use recognising that
users fit the use of ICT environments into contextually tuned situated
learning environments. In this sense, good design is volatile design,
i.e. design which changes with contextual use. These ideas are
illustrated with reference to a range of ICT learning environments
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