PowerPoint Pandemonium

No field trip in the works today, it was a long shot but with the weather being so miserable I am kind of glad. The upside is that I had no first grade class right before my lunch break so I had extra time to work on some projects. I managed to change my bulletin board outside of my room to a student display of the PowerPoint presentations we have been working so hard on. For most of my students this was the first time they took research from the internet to create a PowerPoint presentation. I am pleased with the outcome though I hope that they will improve over the next few years. I have to remind myself that they are just kids with very little formal computer experience.
I realize now that I am still setting my expectations too high for most of my lessons. I am constantly making adaptations after seeing the results with some of my classes. We have spent way more time on this lesson then I ever wanted to. The good news is that I can see the spark of curiosity beginning to ignite in some of my students as they took the project to the next level by adding sound effects and customizing color schemes without being prompted or directed. I am trying my best to encourage them to be adventurous when using the computers.
It is difficult to strike a balance though; I want them to follow directions and press the correct buttons within the programs we use, however, I also want them to responsibly explore what else they can accomplish. Almost every bit of technological knowledge I have today stems from the fact that I have always been curious about how to do more and taking the initiative to explore the possibilities. I want to instill that value to my students and I am not sure how.
I had a serious chat with my 4th graders about how it is okay to make mistakes as long as we take the time to take responsibility for them and learn from them. I could see that they were getting frustrated by the project so I tried to explain to them that they didn't need to check with me for every problem they experience. I am having trouble getting to every student when their hand shoots up. I told them that as long as they were not shouting I did not mind them talking to a neighbor for help to fix a mistake.
I am also trying to encourage them to take the time to send me a "help request" via the student toolbar I have installed with NetSupport School. Its a neat little button that looks like a life saver ring. When they click on it they can send me a message explaining what their problem is. I am notified by a beep in my Bluetooth headset and a blinking icon on their workstation thumbnail on my screen. I can then quickly share remote control of their computer from my workstation and talk them through it on their headphones. This seems to be working as long as the students take the time to explain their problem in full and not just say 'help!', but many of them are very slow typists still, so it is far from a perfect solution.
I am looking forward to our next lesson on computer viruses and can not wait till I finish designing the simulation. I am ready to take a break from PowerPoint and I think my students are just as ready.