Technology Integration and 21st Century Learning

In following the guidelines for an effective Powerpoint presentation, I tried to keep my slides simple, yet appealing. There are no extraneous words or pictures, and for the most part I kept to the "six lines per slide, six words per line" rule. In doing this, I allow the speaker more room to talk and the audience more focus to listen.
I believe I used headlines effectively, making the audience aware of what the bullets on each slide refers to. I did not use a headline for some slides because I thought it would feel forced. Rather, I left the slides where the speaker is introducing the topic of integration of technology into the classroom un-titled; this reduced unnecessary words and redundancy.
There is, however, one place where I used redundancy in order to drive the point home. A slide towards the beginning, as well as the very last (not reference) slide, bear the words "Integration is integral". I allowed reiteration as that was the message I desired the audience to bring home.
I incorporated pictures where I could, though I did not want it to seem over-done. The picture on the global awareness slide is especially complimentary, I think, as it shows connections and points around the world. A good majority of the slides were simply lists of skills and courses and there weren't any pictures that I could think of that would emphasize the point on the screen concisely. Instead, I chose to leave the slide void of pictures and let the words speak for themselves.
The color scheme and theme that I used for my slides underscores the topic itself; it appears cutting-edge and visually stimulating. There were a few themes I debated using that were clearly education focused; these had images such as pencils and chalkboards. However, since the topic was not just education, but integrating technology into education, I felt that using slides which highlighted so-called "old school" methods of teaching would have been erroneous and missing the mark. Instead I chose a color scheme and theme that would emphasize more the technology aspect of my presentation.

Now that you have read all about it, here is my actual presentation, entitled "What Is Effective Technology Integration For 21st Century Learners?"

http://www.slideshare.net/era3508/technology-integration-5252986