Rebecca Ritchie, Senior Designer at Macquarie University writes an amusing account on making PowerPoint presentations interesting in her blog post Ideas you can steal to make your presentation not boring. We all know the “rules” but we continue to see presentations that bring to mind “death by PowerPoint” – too much text, too much animation, too many bullet points.
Be sure to follow the link to Death by PowerPoint for Don McMillan’s video demonstrating what not to do – it is very funny.
Confessions of a Cognitive Heart – I relate so well to this post!
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach talks about the struggle to remain creative with one’s use of technology in education and in professional learning. She discusses the excitement that came from watching and, even more important, being involved with the first wave of social media and connection. Then the “new wave of learners”!
“At first, it seemed they were enthralled with our messages and a few (now thought leaders in the connected spaces) took the ideas and ran with them. They became the new “us” (the ones who were sharing transparently) on Twitter, which became the new blogs, and in 140 characters of cognitive bliss they began to teach us all.”
Then, she states, things changed! Instead of original ideas, there were “echoes” – nothing creative, nothing new but a repetition and regurgitation of the older ideas.
I loved the opportunities for professional learning and followed my favourite academics and practitioners…BUT… I don’t really want to hear about walking the dog, or the dinner menu. I stopped reading for a while – my loss, not those I follow!
Sheryl took up the challenge and embraced changes to her work, attitude, research, content and performance. The passion came back. Share her wisdom with fourteen reality checks – there’s good advice for us all.