Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Note & Point - VERY Visual Sample Presentations

Well-designed, visually stimulating presentation samples. Be inspired!

Flickr Commons - Photographs in the Public Domain

"The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer."

Passive to Active Learning

Despite overwhelming research (and common sense) that passive learning is less effective than active learning, many classes emphasize passive approaches.

Passive approaches emphasize:

  • Lectures
  • Readings
  • Watching video
  • Listening to audio
  • Observing demonstrations
Active approaches emphasize:
  • Interaction through discussion
  • Student<->student / faculty<->student interactions
  • Student presentations
  • Group projects
  • Simulations
  • Problem solving

Passive Learning

For centuries passive learning has been a favored approach of teaching at the unversity level. Faculty members would teach large groups of students in lecture halls. There would be essentially no interaction, no engagement, no active learning. Take a moment to view this video produced by Michael Wesch's cultural anthropology class last spring at Kansas State University. It explains well that passive approaches do not succeed with the 21st century student.

More on the study here:
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=119

Tools - Camtasia Relay

Examples of Camtasia Relay videos:

How to Subscribe to a Podcast on iTunesU

Searching on Twitter

Video Tour of Blackboard for CSC442

Visual Attention: A Psychologist's Perspective

How to Make Awesome Diagrams

Powerpoint Design: The Good, The Pretty, and the Really, Really Ugly

Excellent PowerPoint Design Tips. Includes tips for organization, alignment, proximity, repetition, backgrounds, etc.