Andy At the Apple Store

Yesterday afternoon, my colleague, Andy Forgrave and I set out from the OTF 21st Century Skills Conference, to visit a brick and mortar Apple Store. Our goal, was to write a children's book to document our trip. I think this is a nice model for how a slidedeck can be used to turn photos and blocks of text into an e-book.

Andy At the Apple Store

View more presentations from Rodd Lucier.

After sharing the original slidedeck, I thought it would be interesting to invite text submissions for new versions. Almost immediately, this fresh take was contributed by Karen Littlewood

One day Andy went to the mall

There was an apple on the wall

Andy wondered what’s inside

It was unlike any apple he’d ever spied

he felt like he was being led

then the glowing apple was on his head!

He thought and thought and thought some more

Then took a step inside the store

The store was like a tekkie fair

On the wall, a Macbook Air

Andy saw an iPhone 4

And a wall of programs in that store

Cords and cables far and near

Beautiful headphones so he could hear

Little shuffles in colours bold and bright

And free Internet, time to check some sites

Andy sat and played a while

That Mighty Mouse sure has some style!

The pics in the game made him stare

Then he got a sticker for playing fair

Andy looked at the man in blue

He knew he had one last thing to do

He could help the customers too!!

One last pic in the Apple store

We all know Andy will be back for MORE!!

The set of photos that were used to create this 'book', are now available for download. If you or your students would like to remix 'Andy At the Apple Store', or if you take this idea and create an entirely new product, I'd love to learn about it...

Brain Rules

Have you the time for an engaging self-paced presentation?

The slides put together by Garr Reynolds model many of the brain rules identified in John Medina's book: Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School. This is the type of unpredictable, thoughtful presentation anyone can make, and you can do it by twinning Flickr's Creative Commons images with some uncommon creativity!

For an extended explanation of three rules (exercise; stess; and multi-tasking) strap yourself down for a fast-paced 50 minute presentation by John Medina, or check out all 12 rules in the book".

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Massive Multiplayer e-Learning

At lunchtime yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet with Peter Purgathofer from the Informatics Faculty at the Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology in Vienna Austria. After some evening editing, I pared our conversation down to this 22 minute 'lesson' on Slidecasting 2.0, an interactive technology in its infancy, that encourages lecture audiences to be active learners, by engaging attaching comments, links, references, and questions to the presenter's slides. The resulting 'rich notes' are then available online for further editing and sharing. If this open source project goes global, PowerPoint lectures may soon be recognized as interactive events!



Peter is truly an engaging teacher, and this while this video is narrow in scope, it was my great pleasure to participate in a conversation with such an enthusiastic teacher-learner. I've included an additional snippet of our conversation on the most recent Teacher 2.0 podcast.

'Erase' the Chalkboard

Like David Warlick, let's go far beyond PowerPoint in making use of the data projector:

"I’m trying something different today in my Web 2.0 workshop. I’m going PowerPoint’less. No don’t get me wrong. This is not an indictment of PowerPoint. I do not believe that PowerPoint is evil. This is something that Stephen Heppell taught me the other day, and he used it so masterfully, that I thought I’d give it a try. I’ll explain in more detail — if it works ;-)"

This leap to using the data projector for something far more dynamic than the traditional PowerPoint presentation is a jump that is foreign to too many educators. I agree that PowerPoint can be a useful learning tool if it is used well... but it usually employs a very static "look at what I have to say" learning strategy.



We can approach the goal of 'erasing the chalkboard' once teachers learn to use the projector as a teaching tool for:

a] thinking interactively with applications like 'Smart Ideas' or 'Inspiration';
b] exploring the world with web applications like Google Earth;
c] viewing today's front page news via Newseum(see what issues are important around the world);
d] experiencing artwork on a large scale from the Louvre (or other museums and galleries);
e] evesdropping on animals or visiting remote locations via live web cameras around the world;
f] participating in live (or recorded) video-conferences (Skype, UStream, Adobe Connect...);
g] collaborating with others via the read/write web (writing/blogging/wiki development)
h] engaging social learning networks via Flickr, Twitter, YouTube
i] creating/critiquing media en masse (e.g., critically assessing/editing your class newsletter/website/podcast)
j] following global news live (the Olympics; science expeditions; tragedies...)

The coloured slide strategy may be better than chalk, but it fails to harness the potential of the technology. Use the data projector for richer purposes, and we will nurture authentic interactive relationships with people and ideas from around the globe!

Kudos to David for trying a new trick... Here's hoping that other workshop presenters will encourage teachers to do the same by modeling other uses of this transformative tool. Let's be 'smart' about our 'boards': You can still use your prepared PowerPoint presentation, but don't do so at the exclusion of the world beyond your classroom.

PowerPoint: More than Electronic Chalk!

When PowerPoint first came on the scene, those who created slideshows for public presentations were seen as 'magicians' in some respects. Since educators first began using this tool, we've followed in the steps of corporate users, and have failed to use it effectively. When used poorly (which is most of the time!) the worst part of PowerPoint presentations is having to sit through them! The problem is that many presenters use the PowerPoint file as 'electronic chalk'. Let's fix that!



DO use high quality graphics... Use carefully chosen photos instead of clipart!

DO use minimal text! No one is reading your many bullet points or 'shiver' paragraphs of text anyways! A presentation is much more memorable if you use only one keyword or one bullet point per slide! This gives you room for a quality image, and allows you to be a part of the presentation by expanding on the visual minimalist slide. Getting past the Mac/PC debate, this comparison this 2005 post on Presentation Zen is still relevant!

DO NOT read your slides to your audience! Just don't!

DO tell stories! Use your slides as introductions to Real stories that demonstrate your point, or stories that can act as apt metaphors will make your presentation more memorable.

DO learn from effective presenters! Merlin Mann is a terrific 'organizational guru', who is clearly comfortable when presenting. When time allows, check out this talk he gave at Google last summer (once the awkward intro is over... you can gain some great tips for managing your email. If you like the style of this presentation, you'll be able to make effective use of Merlin's presentation tips.

DO remember that YOU are the most important part of the presentation! Darren Barefoot is another presenter who has great suggestions on making presentations in this post "Everything I Know about Presentations, I Learned in Theatre School". The presentation should be much more than the electronic chalk notes you provide...

DO engage other tools along with or in place of PowerPoint. The best presenters in using communications technology are very comfortable jumping from application to application, or from site to site within a presentation. If you have live access to the Internet during a presentation, you might want to hyperlink to a wiki, a blog post, or any of a number of relevant websites or online tools.

DO preload content and websites you plan to use in your presentation. Use of a tabbed browsing tool (just about anything but MS Explorer) will allow you to pre-load sites that you'd like to visit.

DO become familiar with the presenter's layout. Both PowerPoint and Keynote allow you to project your presentation while having your notes appear on your local computer/notebook screen. (You might also want to employ a teleprompter.) You'll have to practice this with a data projector as most tools will not make use of this option unless a projector is attached.

DO become very familiar with your slide arrangement. The best presenters can adapt their presentations on the fly depending on audience response and interaction. If you race to show all of your wonderful slides, you may be missing opportunities to make deeper, more meaningful connections with your audience. Being prepared to skip forward/backwards in your presentation.

The slideshow is not the presentation. If it was, you could just hand it out and be done with it. If you are wondering why so many attendees are checking email, or doodling, or talking during your presentations, you'll have to do your part: Engage the audience by making effective use of your favourite presentation tool!

A few weeks later, I've added a few white space exemplars:

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For an audio version of this content, visit the Teacher 2.0 Podcast.