Survey for Presentation (Ignore unless you've seen it!)

Keynote Project Progress

I'm almost done with this Keynote presentation. I'm just adding some final touches and notes. Next class, I'll be presenting to a friend and figuring out how to make one slide come right after another one without having to click to transition between slides.

Article- PowerPoint is NOT the Problem with Presentations Today

Today, my partner and I read an article about a few conference hosts banning the use of PowerPoint during presentations. The article mentioned the ineptness of the presenters and their lack of ability to present successfully- "If their presenters can't design an effective PowerPoint presentation, how are they going to use flipcharts and whiteboards effectively?" I must say, I like the guy who wrote this. He phrases it nearly perfectly- It's not the inability of PowerPoint to aid us in our presentations; rather, it's the ineptitude of the clumsy (For the inability to use a stronger word) presenter that is the fault here.

Hello- From Bob

So I decided to mess around with Keynote today. This is what I found while I was working, and he (it?) asked to be shown to the world.

Yeah...Bob.

Keynote

Keynote is Powerpoint's younger and cooler brother. Right? Anyway, this is one Apple application that I could get used to. After watching the tutorials on Keynote, I think the animations and transition options are a lot more diverse than the lousy animations that my Powerpoint '03 at home has. I could get used to this application pretty quickly, and the animations seem to allow for a wide variety of presentations.  I've actually started a little story; I'll post it later. Bai!

Death by Powerpoint

Okay...Today, we watched a slideshow called "Death by Powerpoint". Quite a famous topic, but one I disagree with immensely. The "Death by Powerpoint" slideshow also gave tips on how to make a good Powerpoint presentation. I could relate to a few of these tips, especially the one to keep the text short and simple. However, the overall "Death by Powerpoint" thing is something I disagree about. First off, I've never seen someone be bored to death (Though that would immensely interesting). Second, Powerpoints can be a great way to present as long as the presenter is prepared. Finally, some detailed Powerpoints I.E. ones with a lot of text can actually be useful depending on your audience- for example, a board of trustees would rather listen to you speak and read the more interesting points on your Powerpoint, but a classroom of kids would rather be amazed by transition animations and hear you speak the important points in quick sections.
I must agree that some Powerpoints can be utterly horrifying, though. Some Powerpoint presentations I've seen have had way too much text, or text you couldn't even read due to the scintillating or overly colorful backgrounds. Others have had too much text, too little information, or no visuals to back up the data when needed. One Powerpoint I've seen had rock music that drowned out the speaker and had absolutely nothing to help the presentation.
But, I like Powerpoint. I don't think it'll be the death of me at all. Keynote, on the other hand...

I'm Back!

What's up, folks! PaulyD is back from his (extended) vacation and has a whole new project to work on.
Our assignment is to pick a Web 2.0 tool (More on that in a moment) and to experiment with it, then assess its pros, cons, and usability for students and present that information. Web 2.0 tools are tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networks such as Facebook that allows people to share data. It is also referred to as the second generation of the World Wide Web, which some may consider as an "upgraded" version (I.E. mp3.com ---> Napster, Ofoto ----> Flickr, etc.). Most Web 2.0 sites allow users to post their own content next to the site's content - As a matter of fact, Blogger is a Web 2.0 tool!

My project will either be on Wikipedia or Stock.XCHNG as two famous Web 2.0 sites. I was considering using Youtube, but one of my friends grabbed that as his presentation. I chose Wikipedia and Stock XCHNG because I know a little about them already (I didn't really want to do a presentation on a website I knew absolutely nothing about =( ) Plus, they're both famous websites. I like that.