Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 in the Classroom

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
Do you have students in your classroom with different learning styles? In our first lesson, we'll explore the ways that Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 can help you teach all kinds of students. We'll view two different types of PowerPoint presentations that you can use in a classroom setting, and we'll also look at some helpful PowerPoint templates and slide layouts.

Lesson 2
In this lesson, you'll learn about the Office Button, the Ribbon, Tabs, and Task Groups in PowerPoint, and what all of them do. You'll have an opportunity to explore different functions in the Task Groups using a presentation template. We'll also work with the Clipboard, Font, and Drawing groups. You'll create some basic slides and learn about different slide views. In addition, we'll explore objects on slides and how to move, resize, and delete them. This will give you a great foundation for beginning your own presentations.

Lesson 3
Today, you'll learn about adding, formatting, and manipulating text in PowerPoint. You'll insert text boxes; experiment with different colors, fonts, and styles; and add bullets to important information. In addition, we'll explore WordArt, which will help you add colors, patterns, and fill effects to WordArt titles. To polish up our text, we'll take a look at alignments, colors, and placements, and we'll finish with a Spelling and Grammar Check.

Lesson 4
Have you heard of JPEGs, GIFs, and BMPs, and wondered what these letters mean? Well, wonder no more! In this lesson, you'll learn the origins and purposes of different graphic formats. You'll look at the Picture Tools and practice applying effects to pictures. Finally, we'll explore sources of clip art, and you'll see how to use options on the Insert tab to add images from scanners and digital cameras. By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to add all kinds of images to your presentations!

Lesson 5
Do you enjoy drawing shapes and experimenting with fill colors? Can you think of some ways you could use shapes in a PowerPoint presentation to teach concepts in class? Today, we'll continue our exploration of the Drawing group. We'll look at Shapes, Shape Fill, Outline, line and arrow styles, SmartArt, and 3-D effects. You'll have fun rotating, flipping, and distributing objects on your slides.

Lesson 6
You might think of PowerPoint as a great way to make visual presentations in your classroom, but you can do a lot with audio, too! Today, you'll discover how to locate, save, and insert sound files from the Internet. And wouldn't it be great to customize a presentation with your own voice? You'll also learn how to record and add your own sounds and narration to a PowerPoint presentation.

Lesson 7
Would you like to know how to play a video in a PowerPoint presentation? In this lesson, we'll explore different video formats, as well as sources of videos and motion clips. You'll learn how to set up a link to a video to either play with a click or play automatically in a slide show. You'll be surprised at how easy it is to add educational clips to your presentations!

Lesson 8
Have you noticed all the transitions that you hear or see every day on radio and television? Transitions help us move seamlessly from one idea to the next. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to make your slide show more interesting and exciting by using the many visual and auditory transitions available in PowerPoint.

Lesson 9
Putting objects in motion is one sure way to get your students' attention! Today, you'll discover how animating text and graphics in your PowerPoint shows can help you bring any show to life. You can animate objects in a PowerPoint presentation with a wide variety of motions and sounds. We'll practice animating objects and see which effects work best in your show.

Lesson 10
Have you ever wanted to create a self-paced presentation to show students at a computer station? In today's lesson, you'll create an interactive slide show that allows your students to explore information at their own pace. You'll also learn how to design a home slide with hyperlinks to as many individual slides as you need.

Lesson 11
If you've ever given a speech, you know how helpful speaking notes are. Did you know that you can add notes to a PowerPoint presentation to help you give a talk that goes with it? You'll learn how to do that today, and you'll also create handouts to go with your slide show. In addition, we'll practice using the Rehearse Timings option to set up a show to automatically advance. You'll see how all these tools can make presenting your shows a snap!

Lesson 12
Have you ever wanted to give a presentation in another classroom or at a conference, but you weren't sure how to get it to a different computer? In our final lesson, you'll see how PowerPoint's Package for CD feature allows you to take your slide show wherever you want! You'll also learn how to e-mail a presentation, and how to save a slide show as a Web page. Get ready to share your presentations just about anywhere!