Think Outside the Template

In an earlier post, I explored how PowerPoint is being used these days in the "real world". The way to produce high quality presentations is to avoid the templates, slide layouts, and Microsoft produced slide designs. I found a terrific blog by hosted by Tom Kuhlmann. He provides some fine examples of how the program is used as an "authoring environment". I particularly enjoyed his tutorials on how to create animations using PowerPoint.

How Walt Disney Would Use PowerPoint to Create E-Learning Courses - The Rapid eLearning Blog via kwout

I tried out these techniques and created some nifty animations. The motion path feature doesn't work on a Mac (phooey) but the other techniques are really fun and produce some cool techniques. Here are some possible edtech possibilities:

• Create an animation or set of animations and record narration of the story
• Use animation as a "special effect" to help illustrate a message, to really engage the viewer
• Save the animation as a .mov file (Mac only) and embed in another project (haven't tried this...wonder if it'll work?)

It wouldn't be enough to just teach students how to create the animation. They would have to be able to use it with some kind of story telling. It's something to think about.