http://podcasting-for-lta.blogspot.com/2008/03/death-by-screencast-or-towards-
I probably ought to post this on our creativity blog but I think this has a strong connection to my views on educational podcasting.I've been on my PowerPoint fast for over a year - use anything, but don't use PowerPoint, see what changes... Nothing against PowerPoint per se, just I know what I do (and I know what others do) as soon as PowerPoint starts up. It is such a usable interface that it doesn't challenge you to chisel away at your ideas - it is very much about presenting ideas in a clear, structured way. PowerPoint is a fantastic planning tool, but the trouble is you start planning and, before you know it, you've turned up to do your session and you're projecting your plans and your script on the wall for all to see. How weird!
By the way, not only is PowerPoint a great planning tool, for podcasters PowerPoint is specifically a great storyboarding or outlining tool around which conversations can be driven.
Well the fast is working - I've used various technologies to enhance the sessions I run at conferences for staff development. And I've run sessions where there has been no need for the planned use of digital technology. My sessions tend to involve other people's voices as much as my own, even where I've been presenting a paper. That's no big deal, but for me it helps me to work on engagement.
I've been submitting several abstracts for conference papers recently and several of the educational conferences I am submitting to ask presenters to submit their PowerPoints beforehand! What? Why?!! Shouldn't conference organisers (and some are) be promoting more interactivity in their session. OK, PP doesn't have to mean death - but it certainly helps!
So, you've heard of Death by PowerPoint:
- bullet
- point
- after
- bullet
- point
- read
- by
- the
- presenter
- in
- a monotone
What can be worse?..
Death by screencast. (I've seen this so many times but inspired by seeing an example here yesterday.) It's the same problem, captured and glorified. And what can be worse than that? Death by Screencast+ (with captioning "because we have to comply with accessibility legislation" - captioning bullet points - why? Something is wrong here.). OMG. Give me a hanky.
Let's not go into the creative use of PowerPoint - there are fantastic ways of using it (eg as a game platform). But let's consider:
New Technologies, new opportunities and creative attitudes
Take Camtasia Studio as a starting pointing - we can capture the screen and add a narrative. We can annotate this. Zoom in and hightlight parts of what we see. Once you've got your mic connected just hit the red button. That's the technology.
So why, with such an accessible and versatile tool, would you consider capturing just one voice and just one screen? Anyone heard of Windows? Anyone heard of conversation? Why does it have to be more than 30 seconds long?
With this technology we could be discussing pictures, diagrams, telling stories, giving feedback on assignments, setting challenges and puzzles, commenting on dynamic data coming in, discussing technology supported reflective practice,...
And we could be distributing these student and staff generated media interventions through a podcast feed. (I knew I was on the right blog).
