By Amelia Tan

IT IS a computer program that for years has been the bane of businessmen caught in dreary, never-ending presentations.

But one Singapore teacher has caught the eye of tech giant Microsoft by using the company's PowerPoint software to teach art.

Ms Nur Ilyana Mohamed Anwar, from CHIJ Our Lady of the Nativity, has been using the program for the last three years to help students produce digital art pieces that feature animation and music.

The 26-year-old's use of technology has impressed Microsoft so much that it will team up with her to expand PowerPoint art to schools here and possibly in the future, overseas.

Microsoft Asia Pacific public sector programs director Vincent Quah said he was 'very impressed' with a proposal she made recently to popularise the technique.

'Technology must be woven into the entire process such that you don't even think about it when you are using it. This is the biggest challenge for teachers and Ilyana has managed to do it.'

The programme, which will start with a cluster of schools, will be funded by Microsoft's global initiative Partners in Learning. The drive, which aims to transform education through technology, was launched in 2003 with a US$250 million (S$358 million) investment by Microsoft. In April this year, it was announced that another US$235.5 million will be invested over the next five years to expand its reach to more countries.

Mr Quah said Ms Nur Ilyana's proposal is the first from Singapore to have 'significant potential to cross cultural and geographical boundaries'.

He explained that PowerPoint can be easily used by non-English speakers as its visual nature keeps translations to a minimum.

Mr Quah said it will take at least a year to judge if PowerPoint art is a success in local schools. Microsoft will then decide whether the programme should be expanded overseas. So far, the company has not said when the trial will begin or which schools will be involved.

When Ms Nur Ilyana began using the software in classes three years ago, she was not expecting it to be a big hit.

She hoped it would help her students overcome difficulties in drawing lines and shapes with pencils and crayons. Many were discouraged as their work did not look 'perfect', she said.

PowerPoint's autoshapes function, though, allows users to create shapes without having to draw them.

Ms Nur Ilyana said: 'With a click of the mouse, they instantly could have shapes which were perfectly coloured. This makes them more confident and they feel encouraged to be more creative in their art.'

As she continued to explore with her students the functions of the programme - like 3-D shading and animation - they found a myriad of ways to create fascinating art pieces.

Last year, her students won a silver medal at the Singapore Youth Festival for a piece called 'Flight', which was produced by printing images drawn with PowerPoint on plastic transparencies.

Ms Nur Ilyana has already won national and international awards for her innovations and she eventually wants to hold an exhibition in Singapore showcasing the PowerPoint art pieces.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Sept 19, 2008.

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