To PowerPoint or Not?

In class we discussed effective instruction and how many intructors use too much PowerPoint as the focus of their instruction versus as a tool. 

When looking for resources to add items for the distance learning page on the class wiki site I found other ways to use PowerPoint.

http://facstaff.uww.edu/jonesd/games/

http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/PPT-games/

Both of these sites have resources that you can use PowerPoint for they are mostly games to reinforce content.

John

A fun new site

I was examining some resources that are in a online professional development course that I am taking for one of the schools that I teach at and found a treasure trove of resources.  The professional development courses ties in with our topic of using technology in the classroom. 

Anyway I found a cute tool that is more for entertainment than education, but it might have educational applications as well.   http://www.xtranormal.com/   Xtranormal takes what you type and allows you to create an animated movie.  I thought this might be a fun way to do a class introduction or something of that nature.

Google the world

We studied a lot of different apps this term in our class and many of them revolved Google.  Many people do not know about most of these applications, I am sure I didn't.  But I have since started using many of these on a regular basis.  Google Calendar is amazing and helps me keept track of what needs done for each of my jobs.  Google Docs is a great way to store documents to work on at various place without remembering to pack my flash drive.  I tend to keep exploring these.

In addition there are many different add ons and enhancements that come to assist in making these Google tools and other better.  Some are from private developers and some times from Google.  In my feeds I came across http://chrome.blogspot.com/2010/11/new-chrome-extensions-by-google.html and article that google released several new extension that are official enhancement.

So even more to explore!

John