Prince Sultan University attended the TESOL Arabia Conference and job fair in Dubai which was held at Al Bustan Rotana Hotel, Dubai between March 28 and April 1, 2006.

The delegation was headed by Dr Abdelhafeez Feda, Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs, Dr Kathleen Guillaume, Chair of the English Department, College for Women and Mr Roderick Wathen, Director of the English Preparatory Year Program and Ms Catherine Hill, Lecturer in the English Department, College for Women.

Ms Catherine Hill ran a workshop on the use of Powerpoint in the English language classroom.

Read the article below:

PowerPoint isn’t always the answer

Workshop held at the Tesol Arabia Conference in Dubai, March 2006 by Catherine Hill, PSCW.

We are all pursuing the same goals to teach and encourage a mastery and independent use of language on the part of our students. However, nowadays many of us are awash in technology - computers, projectors, hi-tech CALL labs and the like. Chalk and talk has been declared dead and glitzy PowerPoint presentations are the way to go – but are all these “bells and whistles” actually effective when it comes to actually teaching in the classroom especially with low or mid-level learners? Can teachers who don’t have access to this technology still be effective language educators? Isn’t it more productive at times to use a low-tech board constructively, building up a concept rather than presenting it “ready made”?

This workshop was designed to investigate how technology – in particular PowerPoint is used in teaching in third-level educational institutions in the Gulf area. I chose the workshop format to encourage the participants to discuss the issues and share their knowledge and experience in an attempt to stop us all re-inventing the wheel.

The first part of the session looked at the results of an online survey that I carried out prior to the conference among colleagues in KSA, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman. I wanted to find out how much technology was actually “out there” in third level Gulf classrooms. I asked:

 what technology people actually had available in the classroom
 what they could bring with them
 what they actually used on a regular basis
 and in an ideal world what technology would they like to have available

I also gave those who attended the workshop a copy of the online questionnaire and their answers (non-scientifically evaluated!) seemed to reflect the general Gulf situation - some people have a very hi-tech set up, others have reasonable access to technology but many had very little or no technological infrastructure in their classrooms. The majority of teachers involved, both online and conference-based, were teaching students with a lower intermediate or intermediate level of English.
 
After looking at the results of the survey and describing the situation in their own establishment’s people spent the second half of the session sharing their own experiences: Some felt that elements like PowerPoint were useful as a tool to present an initial concept - many of us with less than perfect handwriting could see their point! Others felt that a better way to do this was the old-fashioned “build it up on the whiteboard.” Many people were concerned with the problems involved in trying to use PowerPoint in an interactive way. One possible solution – could PowerPoint slides be projected onto a whiteboard rather than a screen, then students would be able to add to the information, do “fill in the gap” exercises, and in general participate in generating content. Depending on the configuration of the classroom, others were concerned about the “dimming the lights and TV/cinema” effect – how much would students understand and how would a teacher be able to monitor the level of comprehension.
 
I don’t think that anyone’s basic opinions were changed; I for instance am still not a great fan of using PowerPoint as a teaching tool. However, the discussion was lively and as wide-ranging as possible given the constraints of the 45-minute time frame and hearing similar contributions “live” so to speak gave some of the online-survey findings a “voice”.

The student’s perspective was also represented. One of the Emirati student helpers –told me at the end of the workshop that he wouldn’t recommend teachers to use it. He was honest enough to admit that he loved it when his teachers used PowerPoint, he thought it was a perfect opportunity to switch off and day dream! However, as with the diverse opinions among teachers, I am sure there are students who find it useful and interesting…..the debate is still open.


Catherine Hill,
B.A. H. Dip in Ed, M. Ed
PSCW, Riyadh, KSA.
8 April 2006