Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Applications to Make PowerPoint Interactive

The Idea
—A good assignment will have a clear set of ob jectives,
but it might allow students a great deal of latitude in picking a topic.
You might need to work with students to help them generate ideas
for their topic.
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The Re search
—Since one pur pose of mul timedia pro jects is to en -
hance learning in curricular areas, you will have to de cide how much
of the research you will pro vide for the students. You could pro vide
all the in formation that will be used in the pro ject. You could pro -
vide specific resources for stu dents. You could help students find
materials (in the li brary or on the Internet, for example). You could
brainstorm ideas with stu dents about where they might find the
information they need.
•
Se lect ing In for ma tion
—Many students have trouble finding
enough in formation, and many have trou ble selecting the informa-
tion to in clude. You might need to help students nar row down the
appropriate in formation to in clude; they might not be able to in clude
everything they find.
•
The Or ga ni za tion and the Met a phor
—You might pick an or gani-
zation and a metaphor for your stu dents or help them find an appro-
pri ate or ga ni za tion and metaphor.
De sign ing As sign ments for Your Stu dents 9

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The Me dia
—Students might need help se lecting and preparing the
media representations of their in formation. You might help them de -
cide what me dium to use for each kind of in formation, and you
might help them with the technical pro cess of creating or find ing the
media representations. In the extreme case, you might give them
prepared me dia to use in their projects.
•
Tem plates
—You might pro vide a template for your students. This
can provide a metaphor, or ganization, and/or types of media.
In any of the above cases, you need to de cide what is appropriate for your
students. Sometimes the best pol icy is to leave the stu dents alone. At other times,
you will need to coach them through out the entire pro ject. At a min imum, your
students will need to check in with you on a regular basis, show ing you the de-
sign at var ious phases. It is of ten a good idea to set deadlines for various parts of
the pro ject, requiring stu dents to turn in something to you at each of the twelve
steps of the de sign pro cess (see “The Design Process” above) or at one or more
points along the way.
Mul ti me dia pro jects are of ten an ex cel lent ve hi cle for group pro jects. But
groups can be difficult. You may de cide whether you want to group stu dents by
ability levels, in terests, skills, or their own choice. Once you have groups, gener-
ally of be tween two and five stu dents, you need to help students work out the
roles they will play in the group. Some pro jects have natural roles that students
can play, di viding the project ei ther by subject matter or technical spe cialty
(gath er ing in for ma tion, video pro duc tion, VBA script ing, etc.). Learn ing to
work with a group can be an important ob jective of the pro ject, but group dy -
namics can be dif ficult, and you will have to mon itor how well members of the
groups are working together.
Be careful about se lecting the requirements for your pro ject. Make sure that 
they are suitable for your goals. Remember that part of the idea of learning mul -
timedia is to see that great artwork or sounds do not necessarily mean great in for-
mation. Make sure that, if your goal is to have worth while in formation, students
are aware that that is important.
Finally, try to save time for reflection. A great deal of the learning (for you
and your students) can come from look ing back at the pro jects and seeing what
went right and what went wrong and what was learned.