A week or so ago, I posted my SlideRocket presentation, and at that time I promised to add more commentary later. Here's that commentary! Better late than never?
SlideRocket is a lot like PowerPoint, or KeyNote (on the Mac), I'm told, and there are other "presentation sites" out there on the web, such as Google Docs, VoiceThread, SlideBoom, or SlideShare. I've used VoiceThread already, so I thought I'd try SlideRocket.
An interesting assignment idea might be to have students compare-and-contrast, and evaluate, two different presentation tools, and then create a presentation about it!?! I've just done an informal survey, and students are reporting that a "PowerPoint assignment" should definitely be a part of a college-writing class ... perhaps especially since they are already required to use PowerPoint in their required Speech class.
In creating these presentations, my digital writing professor asked us to make them "as interactive as possible," and then I missed the next class where he demonstrated some very interactive ones.
So, instead of using SlideRocket as a lecture/presentation tool where A LOT of information is given, using A LOT of bullet lists, I envisioned and created it for a discussion-based literature class, where discussion rather than lecture is the dominant mode. I wanted to use it to guide the in-class discussion, to give students things to think about, to activate their background knowledge(s), to explicitly elicit comments from them, and to move us forward. (So many times, discussions can stall. However, sometimes it is also good if discussions get off track, or even back up a bit. Can these presentation tools handle that?)
I think this presentation does a fairly good job, but it is definitely for an in-class discussion, where I (or someone else) would be "moderating" and perhaps even jotting notes on the whiteboard -- or somewhere else ... is there a digital tool for that? (There's got to be; it's just not on my radar yet.)
A classmate, Brent Eckhoff, told me about a presentation he designed, with the idea that students would view it, and interact with it, OUTSIDE of class. This is my next step.
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3 comments:
Hi Scott:
I like your idea of including a powerpoint assignment into any writing class - I think it is a different kind of writing to create powerpoint presentations and I'm sure your students would find value in it. So often, we get little good feedback about slide presentations, and the old, tired feedback just seems like noise instead of specific advise.
I thought your presentation was very interactive - and I too, thought this was a very good concept for us to try in class. Recently I created some new presentions for a class, and I found it hard not to fall back into the old habit of listing things on the slide. I think my presentations are much better because of this experience - but, I'll soon find out if my students think so...
Amy
And I am NOT one of those professors who prohibits students using a paper for more than one class. In college I was often allowed to "dovetail" one paper for two assignments in two different classes. And I think with presentations I would continue this. Students also taking a Speech class at the same time could use that presentation as their project in my class, AS LONG AS they have the permission of their Speech prof also!
And I think most feedback, in writing and in other courses, is often more of the old, tired, noise type rather than good specific advice. I think the key is to "train" students to give good feedback, and to model it, but like most things, this takes TIME.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for blogging about SlideRocket in education. We have a lot of interest from students, teachers and professors using SlideRocket and we're always interested to hear their feedback. One of the best ways that we think SlideRocket enables education is through the collaborative authoring and sharing features available in the business plan. This way students can work together to assemble presentations in the classroom and beyond. Have you considered giving students this kind of assignment?
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