Tired of Powerpoint?

For those of you out there who have about had it with Powerpoint or who really want to try something else, there are alternatives out there. Powerpoint has its place in education, this is true, but why not try something new and fun. There are several Web. 2.0 replacements for Powerpoint out there. These programs give you a fresh new way of presenting and teaching material to students. Rather than just going through slides you can instead inspire the students with interactive pictures, maps, and videos with Glogster Edu. This web tool allows the teacher to use an interactive poster platform to move through the information and create interactive discussions and activities with the students. The following link is an example of one of my Glogster creations: Mr. D Glogster Example.  Another fun presentation tool is Prezi. This is a zooming tool that allows you to jump around an open canvas of information. In the canvas you can put links, pictures, videos, and text. The following link is an example of one of my Prezi creations: Mr. D Prezi Example.

Higher thinking technology

Gimp logo at www.gimp.org

There are a lot of technologies and programs out there on the internet. Many of them are excellent sites for student learning and thinking. There are a couple of programs and websites out there that are of particular interest to me as a future educator. Both of these programs require higher order thinking skills and would take their place near the top of most educators thinking pyramid. They are Glogster.com and Gimp. Glogster.com is a website that allows students to create an online poster with images, text, audio, and video that best expresses their view on a topic. Gimp is a creation tool that you can download from the internet. This is a free photo editing tool that rivals programs like Photoshop. This allows students to create and edit photos or media in a way that expresses their learning. In order to edit and change these photos students need to use higher order thinking skills in order to alter, change, or create images. Here are the links to these websites: www.glogster.com and www.gimp.org. Enjoy!  To the right is an example of a glog that I created about the Battle of Actium in Ancient Rome!