POWERPOINT VS PAPER BASED LEARNING

PowerPoint vs Paper Based Learning

for Dental Nurses

by Miss Monica Morrison

for my Comparative Proposal

BA Professional Studies (Honours)

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION3

Aims and Objectives of the Report7

Problem Statement7

Key Concepts9

Purpose of the Investigation10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW11

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY APPROACH & RATIONALE16

Validity & Reliability17

Data analysis methods19

CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION20

REFERENCE21

PowerPoint vs Paper Based Learning for Dental Nurses

Chapter 1: Introduction

Computer lecture presentations, using software such as Microsoft's PowerPoint, are becoming increasingly widely used in college classrooms throughout this country. Judging from the response in the classes the researcher experience has been teaching, students are extremely enthusiastic about this type of technology. Many other dental nursing teaching schools appear to be equally satisfied, as evidenced by the fact that they are choosing to invest considerable amounts of time and effort into revising their courses. (Kulhavy, et al. 1993:63)

Despite the rising popularity of presentation software, thus far there has been very little evidence that this technology can improve learning. This should not be surprising, inasmuch as the technologies have been used for a relatively short period of time, and it is not yet clear how to maximize their usefulness. It is probably true that learning to master the technology itself seems to be much easier than discovering the methods that make the best use of the technology for learning.

Do faculty members hold potential misconceptions about PPT's utility and effectiveness as an instructional delivery tool? On the basis of this study, at least in comparison with dental nurse views, the answer is yes. The results of this study indicate that faculty members' overall perception of the value of PPT in terms of its impact on learning and classroom interaction is significantly higher than the value perceived by dental nurses. As such, faculty members seem not only to overestimate the benefit they are actually gaining from using PPT in the business classroom but also to be unaware of some of its potentially detrimental effects, such as minimizing classroom rapport and a sense of participation. Furthermore, instructors' fear of the degree to which dental nurse attendance will suffer as a result of either posting PPT notes or using PPT in the classroom is not borne out by the dental nurse perceptual data. In sum, there are perceptual differences about PPT that business faculty members should be aware of to use the tool more effectively. At the same time, faculty members and dental nurses both believe that PPT promotes enhanced note taking, content recall during exams, emphasis of key points, and attention holding.

That dental nurses hold less favourable views than faculty members of the impact of PPT on cognitive learning, especially on classroom interaction, is an interesting, although not wholly surprising, finding. The utility of an instructional tool typically has less to do with its inherent functionality and more to do with how it is used by instructors. As such, any dental nurse concerns related to loss of classroom interactivity, for example, could potentially be alleviated if faculty members design their courses and PPT slides to get ...