Bryan Alexander is an excellent presenter and facilitator on the current state and speculative futures of higher ed, and those of us who have been fortunate enough to participate in events he’s run can attest to his abilities. He just posted an article full of practical advice he’s gleaned over the years on giving successful…
Have your students needed a visually compelling way to present their research on key events involved in a complex issue? Have you needed to organize and display multimedia material to show how an issue developed over time? In these kinds of situations, both teachers and students can benefit from using a simple intuitive tool to…
A screencast tutorial of our popular seminar “Designing Effective Presentations” is now available in four parts: 1. Designing Effective Presentations Part 1: Common Pitfalls and What to Avoid 2. Designing Effective Presentations Part 2: The Process for Planning a Presentations 3. Designing Effective Presentations Part 3: Visual Design of Presentations 4. Designing Effective Presentations Part…
Apple’s iPad was released last April so this marks the first semester that faculty might consider using it in a planned way in the classroom. An activity many instructors have expressed interest in is the use of the iPad as a presentation device. After some initial testing I would suggest that this first generation of…
What is Screencasting? Screencasting is using a piece of software to record on-screen activities, frequently with narration, that can then be shared with an audience. Techsmith’s Camtasia is one popular tool for screencasting on which Academic Computing provides workshops, but there are a range of programs out there. When talking about screencasting, people usually differentiate…
Judging by the lovely VHS-quality of the video and the dated wardrobe this clip might be over a decade old, but the frequency with which I see these common PowerPoint mistakes still persists…
I thought I’d share with you a screencast of a presentation I gave last week on Designing Effective Presentations. Designing Effective Presentations Part 1: Introduction I’ll be giving the same presentation in a slightly extended format for faculty in a few weeks.
“Microlectures” are short video pieces that attempt to convey key subject matter in an extremely short time span, as short as 60 seconds but usually in the 2-5 minute range. The focus is on giving attention to a particular concept of point. They can be recorded as audio or video pieces for repeated playback by…
Can technology really make learning easier? While there may never be a catch-all technology solution that will make learning easier for everyone in the classroom, there are some general principles to follow when designing instructional presentations that can at least help. The following suggestions are meant to cut across both technology-meager and technology-rich environments, and…
Imagine if you had to teach your class in 6 minutes and 40 seconds, using 20 PowerPoint slides, each displayed for 20 seconds. Well, these are the rules for Pecha Kucha, “chatter” in Japanese, competitions being held worldwide. Even if you aren’t going to use this method in your class, going through the process of…
We’ve all seen (or at least heard of) a number of online communication and collaboration tools that have recently become popular: podcasting, wikis, blogs. . . . Some are good for distributing audio, while others lend themselves to displaying text or images. However, there seems to be a distinct lack of tools that can combine…