Observation - Lecturing vs. Doing

The Problem:
It is getting to the end of the term and I am running out of time. I still have several skills that I want the students to be able to do for their final projects but I haven't had time to cover yet. This quarter is one week shorter than the first and Food Drive and holiday events have cut into my class time. I normally give students an opportunity to practice several PowerPoint skills before they are required to use them on their final projects but I am short on time. What to do ....?

The Solution:
I am not completely happy with my solution but I have decided to have my students make a PowerPoint presentation about "How to make an effective PowerPoint presenation". This will give me opportunity to "teach" some skills ABOUT PowerPoint and the students will include this information in their projects. They will also get a chance to PRACTICE some of the skills in the project at the same time.

The Result:
At first the students seemed to like the idea that they were making their own tutorial about how to use PowerPoint. They like learning how to make screenshot to show examples of what they were writing about. But after 5 days of repeating the same thing over and over again, I could tell that some of the student were getting bored with the material. I am guilty of trying to cram too many concepts into one lesson. I should have just chosen 2-3 unique skills (ie: varying slide layouts, using the slide master, and features of custom animation) and let the students "discover" many of the other skills on their own.

I fall into the habit too often that if I don't teach it to them - they won't discover the information. I really need to embrace the constructivist point of view and create an environment where my students can discover and explore various elements of technology skills and provide them with guidance and resources to uncover the information. My mantra needs to be "guide on the side" not "sage on the stage".