Literally every teacher I have known in the last twenty years knows what Microsoft PowerPoint is. Most of them have, and are writing presentations using that warhorse of a program. When I worked in the private sector, almost every manager I ever dealt with used PowerPoint. I have been subjected to almost innumerable PowerPoint presentations in the last ten years… Most of these presentations were similar, in an almost homogenized PowerPoint manner…page after page of bullet points interspersed with clip art. There has to be a better way for teaches to present information.
As I mentioned in passing yesterday, just because something is ‘high tech’ doesn’t mean that it is the right tool. For instance, merely using chalk on a blackboard is the right solution to dynamically explain ideas, other times a more cogent PowerPoint presentation is the best answer. From a post of mine a month ago, I brought up Prezi as an alternative to PowerPoint. It is effectively free, it is much more dynamic (for the viewers), is (so far) comparatively rare (and thus more interesting to students), and gives the presenter (read: teacher) another means to inject energy into what might have been otherwise a list of bullet points.
I created this Prezi presentation (online) in about 5 minutes. They can run on any system which has flash, can be embedded (as seen here) on websites, wikis, and blogs, and the presentation is quite easily manipulated and edited to allow for re-use of your content.
There are many more sites which purport to provide tutorials on how to best use PowerPoint. From the many sloppy, and sometimes obtuse presentations I have seen from my seat in a classroom, as well as in management meetings, I can see the need to work to develop some effective skills in the art of presenting ideas regardless of the format one may use (whether PowerPoint, Prezi, or the old blackboard). Here are some Prezi and PowerPoint links.
Prezi:
PowerPoint:
http://www.electricteacher.com/tutorial3.htm
http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2007/ppt/index.asp
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/cr100654571033.aspx
As a final point, while it is certainly easy to get lost in the weeds, as you develop skills in using these tools, when it comes down to it, YOU are making the presentation not the screen behind you. This is just a tool…
