An interesting post from Jeff Utecht, which is relevant to a point I made in my previous post.
I particularly like his Skills tied to specific tools do not need to be taught. I agree. You don’t need to teach students Powerpoint (or even Prezi, a much better presentation tool, I find). You might well, however, need to teach them how to design a good presentation, regardless of the program (or lack thereof) with which it will be presented. After all, MLK managed to give some pretty effective presentations without Powerpoint.
Here’s a continuation/elaboration of that point: Give kids 10 to 15 minutes with a program and they’ll figure out all the button stuff, or at least enough to finish the task.
The skills I’m talking about are skills of organization, of building research systems, and meta-cognition. Skills that go beyond the tools and deep into the learning process.
And then, they mostly need guided practice, critical feedback, and more practice.