13 Responses to “Use PowerPoint for Note-Taking? Oh, yes…”

1. Gary Stager said on December 27th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

   KJ,

   I seriously admire your enthusiasm and effort, but I don’t get it. Why would you use PPT to do this and THEN transfer it to Word?

   Where, how, when and why does the analysis you speak of occur?

   We can discuss why kids are engaged in formal note-taking at a later point.

2. Kevin Jarrett said on December 27th, 2008 at 4:14 pm

   Glad you asked, Gary!

   The problem we face is that kids need good research skills and the need good tools to complement them. Back in the day, we used notecards. We pored over our sources (sometimes informed by an outline, sometimes not), read, tried to understand and then rewrote things in our own worlds. We made note of the source. When it was time to write the paper, the notecards were scattered all over the table and the outline we came up with tried to piece it all together. The PPT collection device envisioned here is merely an attempt to replicate that process to an extent, but with the added benefit (and negative) that kids can copy from the web verbatim. Point here would be for the kids to take what is in the slides, distill it down into their own words, then have a ‘chunk’ that would go into the report somewhere. When all the ‘cards’ were done, they could theoretically be brought into Word for further writing.

   Personally, I don’t see the Word connection being as needed. The beauty of this approach to me is that it will help the kids focus on what they need (#1 – plan). Then it’s off to find what they identified (#2 – do.) After they’ve done their best, they put it all together (#3 – review). I see a PPT loaded with tidbits, photos, restated facts, insights, etc. as a helpful device along the way.

   The electronic version also has the ability (unlike paper notecards) to facilitate linking throughout writing, something you do extremely well yourself. So basically the PPT is a container for the final product, whether it’s Word, a wiki entry, blog post, or even a handwritten report.

   That help?

   -kj-

3. Vicky Sedgwick said on December 27th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

   Interesting. I’m actually going the other way and teaching my 6th graders how to use the outline format in Word and then creating a PowerPoint presentation from that. I’m doing it this way because I want them to understand outlining and I want to end up with a PowerPoint presentation.

   I like this approach because it’s easier to deal with pictures (my students are saving pictures to their folder and will add them to their PowerPoint when they want to use them) and with source information.

   Thanks for the ideas because I definitely want to take the process of researching and getting information out of articles down to my 4th & 5th graders and this may be a way to make it easier for them to “get”.

4. Kevin Jarrett said on December 27th, 2008 at 5:48 pm

   Hi Vicky! Thanks for commenting. You are on the right track with thinking about this PPT as an information-gathering tool. That’s what it is, more than the foundation for a presentation or outline/Word document. I want to help my students process the information they find, putting the information into their own words, while retaining the sources for citation (and for checking against plagiarism). This gives me an idea…we could have the students “turn in” their electronic note cards (leave them on the server), which would make it really easy to see how well they paraphrased the material (or not). It would really force them to rewrite what they found. What do you think? -kj-

5. Maureen said on December 27th, 2008 at 7:45 pm

   Kevin
   I like the idea of using ppt to organize similar to the notecards we grew up with- to be used with younger kids who cannot use google docs.

   I teach gr6-9 and have them use google notebook to collect info and then transfer to word to be synthesized. They share their docs with me and their science teacher on the current project. I can see their research and suggest sources, she can comment and suggest other avenues to pursue. I also have the kids save their photos to http://vi.sualize.us/ to begin to build a database of photos for the project and to provide me with a quick and easy way to access photos and be sure of copyright considerations. Since this project will be a print document done in InDesign they need to have high quality photos that can be accessed and used in another program. In the past they would bring in word docs with photos which were not useful. For an ongoing project I like the ability to keep track of where they are in the process and to help them learn how to do it more effectively vs. just grading the end product. So your idea of keeping source material available makes sense to me on several levels. Is this work done only in class or can they work on it at home, the library, etc.? I like being able to work from different venues- thus google docs makes more sense. How can using ppt be made more accessible to all, other than using docs or zoho, etc?

   I can see the way you can use it like note cards and sort etc… but aside from providing a structure to put them in- how does the template help them develop better skills? I can picture the kids cutting and pasting away like crazy. The important parts of any research project would be to find and evaluate resources, then to take the important points and organize them, then to find a way to creatively present your findings. I guess I see the ppt note taking as step in the process.

   If I were teaching the younger kids perhaps I would use this method with the class- have everyone contribute to one project template and work thru it as an example- make all the mistakes publicly and show how to do it before letting them loose with it. Otherwise I’d expect to see a lot of cutting and pasting.

6. Carla said on December 27th, 2008 at 8:06 pm

   Kevin, thanks for taking the time to create this template. My high school kids will appreciate it for the “cool” factor alone — some of those guys who can’t be bothered with note cards will give slides a try. This approach also addresses the dreaded, “I lost 5 of my cards!” or — worse — “I lost them all!” You are the star of my Tuesday blog! :)

7. Kevin Jarrett said on December 27th, 2008 at 9:30 pm

   Hi Vicki and Carla,

   Thanks for continuing the conversation…

   I’d love to see our school go Google Apps – we’re using it in 8th grade but I’m still making the case for a larger implementation, I’d say from Grade 3-8. If we had that, we’d definitely be using Google Docs (or perhaps Google Notebook). We’ve had problems though with drag-and-drop images crashing Internet Explorer in Google Docs, and Firefox isn’t an option for us at the moment (which also rules out the free and cool http://vi.sualize.us/, which I had not seen before, thank you). And you are exactly right, the PPT could assist them develop better research skills by helping them learn how to select, organize, interpret, restate and cite online information. If they were kept in a central server, the teacher could review them along the way as well. There’s no easy way to make the PPT available to them from home, another reason I’d love to see us go with Google Apps, but at least it would be accessible from any computer within the district.

   Carla, I hope your kids enjoy the note cards and they find them of value. Don’t worry, the kids will still lose, delete, or otherwise mess things up – when there’s a will, there’s a way!

   -kj-

8. Barb said on December 28th, 2008 at 3:08 pm

   Vicky,

   I agree with you. I have the kids create an outline in Word first, then do their creative writing using the outline. They save the outline and draft as separate files (versions). However, when it comes to research, I have them take notes in a Word document using bullets, and they are only allowed to copy “facts” not whole sentences or paragraphs from the internet. Then they have to rewrite those facts into a paragraph of their own. Then I collect the Research Notes page along with the Poster (in Publisher) or the video (in Movie Maker or Photo Story), so that I can see how they went from notes to a paragraph or script.

   I also have them use the “Track Changes” and Comment functions in Word for editing a peer’s work. They then save the copy with redmarks on it in the same folder. This way I can see an outline, a draft, an edited copy and a final one all digitally (they copy their folder into the shared drive for me to grade).

   I also have them copy and paste the URL for each note as they work as well, then use Noodle Bib Express to write their citations.

   One additional feature that I’ve begun to use is the upload feature in Edline (our online report card software), which allows them to put a copy of their work up their for parents to see. It also gives them a way to get if from home if they need more time to work on it. They just download it from home, work on it, and then reupload the new version. This also gives me an easy way to access and grade from home as well.

   Neat conversation! Keep up the sharing! :-)

9. Lyn Sweetapple said on January 9th, 2009 at 11:35 am

   You can view PowerPoint in Outline view. The tab is on the left above where your mini slides are. Also you can take a Word document and convert it to a PowerPoint Outline. Here is the MS Tutorial URL http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101977981033.aspx?pid=CL100626991033

   You can also do the reverse and send a PowerPoint to Word, File, Send to then pick word. I do not know if this works for Office 2007, but 2003 is fine.

10. Susan said on January 6th, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    I’m concerned about plagiarism. Doesn’t this method of notetaking encourage more students to just plagiarize directly, rather than summarizing, pharaphrasing or quoting?

11. Kevin Jarrett said on January 6th, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    Hi Susan,

    Good point! My instructions could be clearer. I see where you are coming from.

    The “optional” part – copying and pasting into Word – could be a problem if the kids don’t edit the notecard content first. That’s what I’ve been instructing my kids to do when they use this template.

    To be totally honest, it’s been a bit clunky – kids tend to copy WAY too much text (including images and other chunks of HTML), which of course pastes happily into PowerPoint, and results in quite a mess.

    If the kids clipped segments of what they were interested in, summarized/paraphrased THAT, then had the URL in the bottom of the form, then I think we’d be in business.

    That’s the goal, at least, when we use it in my school!

    -kj-

12. Susane said on January 6th, 2010 at 7:10 pm

    I’m not sure if this would help or confuse, but perhaps students can use two slides in succession–one slide to copy and paste a chunk of information directly, the slide that follows it must show summarization, paraphrasing, or quotations. The template could include two different colored slides–for example–white with blue background for slides containing actual text and white with purple background for slides that show the rewritten material. Once they shuffle the slides, they only use the purple slides.

13. Kevin Jarrett said on January 8th, 2010 at 5:47 am

    Susane – I love that idea! The visual cues & organizing are exactly what I had in mind when I dreamed this up! It would be easy enough to do! Let me whip something up…