EDOL533-01 Lesson 4, Power Points and beyond...

This week we discussed heavily the use of power point presentations in the classroom.  Power point is something that I am intimately familiar with; having used power point to create my own presentations and, of course, listened to many lectures from power points over the years.  Ever since I was in middle school I have been using power point presentations.  I started out using it as a tool to present family vacation photos, then created slide shows for church youth group trips, and then finally to create presentations for classes in high school and MANY a presentation in college.

The main thing to remember with power point is that it should not be the focus of the presentation!  The only exception of course is that if it is a slideshow of pictures that stand by themselves!  If you are presenting a class project or a lesson plan, however, the power point part of the presentation should only supplement your presentation.  Your presentation should be able to stand alone without the slide show if necessary!  And the absolute WORST thing a presenter can do?

DO NOT READ FROM THE SLIDES!  Use note cards if you must, but never, EVER, turn your back to the crowd or read directly from the power point slides!

Also, as a helpful hint, try to minimize your use of text on the power point presentation!

For example, I had to create a slide show which discusses my experience with an internship program called GeoCorps.  I will be presenting this presentation in person at a Geological Society of America field camp at Mammoth Cave next month.  My presentation is 36 slides long, but only 3 of them have text!

For your viewing pleasure please watch my presentation below:

1. What was the presentation about and to whom did you present it?

My presentation was about my experience in the Geocorps internship program at Fossil Butte National Monument.  As a preliminary I presented this to my piers and parents, but the finalized version will be presented in person at the Mammoth Cave Field Camp to fellow Educators.

2. Of which item in your presentation are you the most proud?

I am most proud of the incorporation of video segments from video podcasts which I created while working at Fossil Butte National Monument.

3. What might you do differently if you could create the presentation again?

Several people have critiqued the begining of my presentation... I need to have a better "attention grabber."  Instead of jumping right into the history of the GSA's geocorps program I should have started off with a "Sales pitch" of sorts to get people interested in the program and willing to listen to the facts, instead of spitting out facts immediately.  

Parts of the rest of the presentation I tend to ramble too much about certain things, so I will also practice the presentation to try and shorten it where I can or at least stick to the important parts!

4. How did your audience respond to the presentation?

My audience responded well to the presentation.  Most found it interesting, only critiques were on the opening of the presentation being a little too "boring" and critiques regarding the use of the screen-o-matic capture program causing the video box of myself being too small to really appreciate my delivery of the material (for example I held up a poster, and due to the small size of the inset box you couldn't see it!).


And that's all I'm going to say about power points... I hope you took some time to watch mine, please leave me a comment and let me know what you thought!!


Here are this week's Technology Explorations:

TE #11: ComicLife : http://plasq.com/products/comiclife3/win 

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Comic life is a desktop publishing program originally developed for MAC, but now also exists for PC and other operating systems.  Comic Life is a program specially designed to create graphic novel style writings using digital images.  Images can be pulled from digital cameras, the internet, clip art, among other sources.  ComicLife gives the user the ability to import digital images into a story-board comic style format and include speech bubbles and text.  This tool is designed to offer the user the ability to create their own comic book using digital imagery.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	In the classroom setting ComicLife can be used to give students another creative outlet for assignments.  Using ComicLife to create a graphic novel style piece of writing incorporates reading and writing skills as well as graphic design and desktop publishing skills.  This tool can get students who typically don’t like writing engaged and involved in the creative process.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	This is a unique and well produced tool.  It does cost, about $30.00 for personal use and $20 for a single license for education.  I would most likely not use this in science classrooms, but I see where it could be utilized in art or writing classes.

TE# 11 B: iSpeach http://www.ispeech.org

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Ispeech is a company with a series of mobile and web apps focusing on text to speech or speech to text applications.  Notably are speak to text apps for the mobile phone, allowing the user to “safely text while driving,” Ispeech translator with 7 language translation capabilities, among other similar programs.  Among their web apps is “select and speak” a program which allows the user to select any text from a webpage and have the program read it aloud.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	The web app Select and Speak can be used in the classroom as an assistive tool for students who may have trouble reading or following text on webpages.  Mobile apps like “Ispeak dictation” can be used by students to take notes, or by students who have trouble writing to simple talk their thoughts down to paper.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	Ispeak’s mobile apps are designed for the blackberry mobile devices, and therefore have a limited audience.  Furthermore, most smartphones have utilities built in to achieve these same results.  The web application select and speak is free, and I would recommend this utility if there is a need for it in the classroom.

TE #12: Voicethread http://voicethread.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Voiethread is a cloud based utility which is accessed on any computer or device which supports flash.  The utility allows users to upload documents, images, video and sound clips to “project” slide shows and then allows other users to review the “project” and upload their own audio or video clips to comment or collaborate on the project.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	This utility could be used by teachers as a mean of giving a lesson digitally.  It can be used as a presentation tool by students.  It can also be used as a review or critique tool by other students or teachers on presentations made by other students.  This tool can also be used as a collaborative tool for several users to work together on the same project.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	An interesting tool primarily designed for online class formats, VoiceThread is a subscription based service with payments being discounted by the number of users a school system needs… Due to the cost and format of the payment plans I can only recommend this program for use by an entire school or school district.  Other, free services, like google Docs and google+ offer similar utilities to VoiceThread.  For a single teacher and classroom I would recommend these services over voicethread.

TE #13: http://storybird.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Storybird is an online utility which gives users access to a library of images with which to create their own storybooks.  These self made e-books are then able to published to storybird or shared with others.  Users can gain critiques of their works and critique others or simply read the works stored in Storybird’s free library.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Educators can use storybird as a tool to help students be more creative in their writing.  By adding the visual element of illustrations to their stories students have more creativity over their story.  The ability to share, critique, and evaluate their own and other student’s work offers an environment of creativity.  Educators can create a teacher account from which they can create student accounts for each classroom, issue assignments and even grade their students work all within the online utility.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	This web utility, much like ComicLife, is geared towards creative writing and encourages creativity as well as reading and writing skills.  I can see this being used heavily in a writing or English course and would recommend using it to give students a more creative aspect to their writing.  I’m not sure how it would be used in a high school science course like I will be teaching however…

TE #13 B:  http://www.scribblar.com

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Scribbler is a web based collaboration utility.  Scribblar users create a “room” in which others (guests do not require an account) can log in and join the collaboration.  Scribblar is marketed as a tool to help tutor students online, or use as a collaborative tool for group projects.  Files can be uploaded to the room and worked on simultaneously, files supported include power point, word, and image files.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	This resource can be used as a collaborative tool between teachers to work on materials together from separate computers or locations.  It can also be used as a tutoring tool, to offer lessons or tutoring sessions online.  The utility can be seamlessly integrated into webpages or wikis so that teachers can include it right on their own web page, making it easy for students to find and log into.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	This utility does have a free service, however it only allows two users per room… this isn’t ideal if you are a teacher with many students.  You have to pay a subscription upgrade fee to allow more users into the rooms at one time.  Again, resources like google+ and googledocs which are free can be utilized in place of this service.  The ability to integrate the room into your own website is a neat aspect, being able to have the room right there on your own page wouldn’t require students to create their own accounts or log into another website.

TE #14: http://www.edu.buncee.com/

1.	Describe what you learned from exploring this resource.  Be thorough in your response.
	Buncee is an online presentation tool.  This utility is a web 2.0 and cloud based utility to design, create, and present “buncee” presentations.  Similar to powerpoint slide shows, buncees are slide based presentations which are interactive.  The user is able to put any type of multimedia into the buncee presentation to create a unique presentation.
2.	How could you use this resource in a school setting?  It does not matter if it is in your field or level, you need to understand how the resource might be used in educational settings.
	Teachers can use buncee to create digital lessons, or use it like a desktop publisher to create handouts and memos.  Students can create their own presentations as part of assignments or homework, or use it as a study tool.
3.	Would you recommend this resource to other educators? Like/Dislike; Ease of use, fee or not, and so forth.  Why or Why not?
	This is an interesting utility.  I like the ability to import media into the program and create interactive presentations, this is not something that you can easily do with power point.  The ability to grade, evaluate, and leave comments on student’s projects is a great addition as well.   I also like that the presentations are compatible with mobile devices!  The only downfall I see in this utility is that it is a subscription based service, 9.99 per month or 59.99 per year!  If you utilized it heavily in your lessons I could see the benefit, but for just one or two assignments I would not recommend it.