Formative Valences of Presentation Graphics Software between Myth and Reality

Abstract

In the context of the on-going reform of the Romanian education, the use of modern educational means (audio-video - mostly in digital format, virtual experiments and simulations, educational software) represents an obvious sign of connecting the school to the imperatives of the contemporary society. The teacher of the 21^st century cannot call the attention of the students just using traditional means of learning and teaching strategies, mainly when applying rigid methods, even coercive ones. The modern teachers should possess a range of professional skills which must enable to achieve an educational quality process: communication skills, ways to identify the students’ needs, the aspirations and the potentialities of each student, socio-emotional skills, integrated approach to the curriculum, planning, organizing and analyzing abilities, monitoring and evaluation abilities, and not in the end, digital skills. Coming near the digital skills, it has to be noticed that in recent years, the use of presentation graphics software (using Power Point or Prezi by example) in academic lectures and seminars, becomes more common, understood as in accordance to the student’s centered educational paradigm and the actual trends of higher education modernization. The paper aims to illustrate an analysis concerning the advantages and limits of using presentation graphics software, as qualitative criteria in the teaching-learning process. In this sense, a questionnaire was developed and applied to a representative sample of students, in order to identify their perceptions about the effects of academic lectures and seminars where teachers use presentations - designed with the help of presentation graphics software - as teaching and learning resources.