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Several years ago, I moved away from using presentation slides in my courses. They just didn’t work with the interteaching model I had started using. Instead, I returned to where I started my career: writing on the board. My current board is digital (interactive short-throw projector with whiteboard software), so my “markers” never run out of ink. For my conference presentations –except for my tech talks—I still use presentation slides, specifically PowerPoint. I know some of you really love Prezi. As my colleague Steve Chew has observed, Prezi is the only presentation software that requires the audience to take Dramamine first. I’ll attend your PreziRead More →

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One of my favorite conference activities is attending poster sessions. I especially love hearing from undergraduates about their research. The topic isn’t even that important to me. In fact, the less I know about the topic, the more fun it is for me to listen and the more questions I get to ask. “Wait. I’m not familiar with that construct. Can you explain what that is?” While I enjoy posters, it pains me to see conference attendees carrying around tubes, wrestling with getting posters in and out of tubes, and forgetting tubes in airplane overhead bins. Fabric posters have been around for a while. TheseRead More →

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I’ve written before about polling options like Socrative and Plickers. ParticiPoll is for those who like to have polls embedded in PowerPoint (works in Office 2010 and higher for Windows; Office 2016 for Mac as of 9/30/2016) but don’t like the cumbersomeness or participant limitations of PollEverywhere. During your presentation, your participants will use a designated URL to access the polling buttons through any web-enabled device they have, such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. NOTE: ParticiPoll has moved to a pay model. As of March 5, 2020, the lowest plan is $199/year for an individual presenter. With ParticiPoll, you download and install the PowerPointRead More →

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You’re in class (or creating a video for your class), and you want to write on the screen to bring attention to some important point. Sometimes you’re in PowerPoint. Sometimes you’re showing a PDF. Sometimes you’re on a website. Epic Pen will write on your Windows screen (XP and later), regardless of what program you happen to be running.  Use your mouse to draw, or if you have a touch screen PC, your stylus. Here I’ve written on a webpage. This is the Epic Pen toolbar. Using Epic Pen is just like writing on a transparency. Even when the content underneath changes, the transparency isRead More →

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ZoomIt was designed to let a presenter zoom into a particular portion of the screen. For most presentations I don’t need a zoom, but I would like to be able to draw. Of course PowerPoint gives you drawing tools, but the menu system is a hassle. If I’m showing, say, a webpage, then the PowerPoint drawing tools are of no use. When I press CTRL + 2, my cursor changes to a red plus sign. I click and hold to draw on the screen. When I’m done, I press ESC. It’s pretty straight forward. After downloading ZoomIt, run it on your computer. Look for theRead More →

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Have a tablet (Android or iPad)? If not, are you looking for a reason to get one? What if I told you that a tablet can be a mobile smartboard? I’m using Splashtop’s Whiteboard. In my classroom, I hook up my laptop to the projector like I usually do, and then I open Whiteboard on my Motorola Xoom tablet. What is on my computer screen I see on my tablet. This is the remote desktop mode. I can now control my computer with my tablet or with my computer keyboard and mouse. Whatever I do on one, happens on the other. In annotation mode, IRead More →

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by Eric Landrum [Note: I am thrilled that Sue Frantz has allowed a guest blog to appear here within her excellent Technology for Educators blog. I just hope I don’t ruin the neighborhood]. Recently heard at an anonymous meeting: “Hi, my name is Eric, and I am a clicker user.” [Audience in unison: “Hi Eric”]. OK, so I don’t think there are truly CA meetings, but I hope by the end of the this post you may be a bit more intrigued about why someone would use clickers in the classroom. There are many different vendors and software systems for the use of audience responseRead More →

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“Ellen Finkelstein invites you to join this free webinar series to learn how to eliminate Death by PowerPoint and make your presentations come to life. Listen to guest experts share their best techniques and answer your questions!” There will be seven sessions on Wednesdays at 11am PT/2pm ET beginning tomorrow, September 6, 2011 and running through October 26th (no session on September 21st). Visit the PowerPoint blog to see the list of speakers.  Or visit the OutstandingPresentationsWorkshops.com website. Register here. Hope to see you there!Read More →

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Do you play Jeopardy in class as a test review? Jeopardy Labs makes it easy to create a web-based Jeopardy game. Here is one created for the “Biological Bases of Behavior” chapter in an Advanced Placement Psych class. In the opening screen, decide how many teams will be playing. You can choose up to 12. Click “Start” to bring up the board. Clicking “100” under “The Neuron” produces this question. Students buzz in by whatever method you’d like. After the team responds, click “Correct Response” to show the correct answer. At the bottom of the screen, click +/- to add/subtract points to the responding team’sRead More →

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Here’s some news for the Google calendar users. You can now change the color of an individual event. Click the top of an existing event, then select the down arrow next to the event title. Choose the color you’d like. The top bar where the time is will remain the same color as your calendar, but the section that includes the name of the event will change color. When you create a new event or click on ‘edit event details,’ you can change the event color there. You can now mark those especially important meetings in red and the less important in grey. What youRead More →