Delivering presentations online with web2.0

When teachers in Hong Kong upskilled by doing Basic, Intermediate or Advanced IT certificates, a lot of attention was paid to the kinds of tools that they could use to deliver lessons and administer classes. That included the MS Office suite and basic web design applications like Dreamweaver. Consequently teachers seem to be fairly comfortable using powerpoint in their English language lessons, and according to it-fiona, it is probably being overused:

When PowerPoint was first used into the classroom, students were facinated by the animation and pictures put in the PowerPoint. Now, as most teachers is using this software in the lessons and morning assembly, the students in my school are fed up with it and seems that teachers has to look for something more interesting.

The problem is less in the technology and more in the way it is being used, and much has been said about the Death by Powerpoint syndrome. (I have to admit that my own use of Powerpoint could use some work). Powerpoint slideshows have a place in presentations, the question is really whether they are used effectively. The next question is how they can be incorporated into web pages, because that seems to be what a lot of teachers want to do, once they get working on a web project or blog.

There are a range of web2.0 tools that will allow you to upload powerpoint slides, convert them to flash video and embed that video in your web page or blog. There are lots of advantages to doing things this way. For example:

• Your slides can be directly accessed from within the browser and there is no need to download them
• The browsing experience for your viewers is enhanced
• You can often create slidecasts by linking the slides with audio
  
• There is often comment functionality, allowing your viewers to leave comments about your slides

Some examples of tools that you can use to share your slides online are:

Slideshare
Voicethread
Googledocs

Check these out if you want to share slideshows online and let me know what you think!

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