Where's the PowerPoint?

Today we're going to use a blog to present information about using blogs instead of the standard PowerPoint. Much of this content came from a seminar at the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference I attended in Madison Wisconsin this past August.

To a packed room, Ray Schroeder and Carrie Levin demonstrated the ways that blogs beat the pants off of PowerPoint in an online environment.

PowerPoint Limitations

As we know, PowerPoint can be a great tool in the class for keeping focused and on task. Even in a classroom setting it can be misused. Have you ever gotten PowerPoint poison? I have!

In an online setting, PowerPoint really loses its usability for students. It's limitations can be listed as:

• Paper and lecture-centric
• Static and singular
• Serial - not scrollable
• Non-interactive

PowerPoint is designed to make presentations in person. It's great for making handouts and guiding the lecturer in his or her talk, but what if the lecturer and the student are not together?

Once you make and post a PowerPoint, it's not meant to be changeable. Once it's done, it's done.

Scrolling PowerPoint is a bad thing... we live by the 6x6 rule (6 words per line and 6 lines per slide) otherwise things get too messy.

PowerPoint slides are meant to give information only. They do not accept feedback or comments.

A Culture of Blogs

Blogs have been around since 1997 and are integral to Web 2.0. Everyone can be part of the "blogosphere." In fact, 2 new blogs are created every second!!!

There are over 30,000 blogs hosted at edublogs.org alone. Topics include E-learning, Education, and Technology, as well as several specialty blogs like music, law and more. (Online Education Database)

Blogs!

The word "blog" comes from a combination of "weB" and "LOG." Here are some of the advantages of blogs:

• Web-native
• Active
• Simple
• Fast
• Easy Scrolling
• Interactive
• Syndicated worldwide instantly via RSS

Blogs were created to be used on the Web so they are a natural in online courses. There is lots of blogging software out there, including some for educators only.

Blogs are changeable, alive, and friendly. They are fast and easy to create and adjust.

Students can scroll or click on the part they want to go to easily. It's like having a built-in table of contents.

Blogs are interactive. They practically beg people to comment or ask questions.

Your blog can be updated instantly using Really Simple Syndication or RSS feeds.

Create slides and upload to blog

So you still like your PowerPoint Slides? Save them as images, upload them and add your narration to the text box!

Sample Presentation Blogs

Here's the link for other presentation blogs:

Sample Presentation Blogs by Ray Schroeder (UIS)

Creating a blog is easy!

You can have your blog set-up and ready to go in just a few minutes. Here's what you have to do:

1. Create your blog: Blogger.com and edublogs.org are popular blogging sites. Both are free.

2. Enable comments and comment moderation.

3. Start posting!

4. Use Post options to control the order of your posts.