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"STORIES DISPLAYED ON MAPS GEO-LOCATED INTERACTIVE TIMELINES WITH A SOCIAL TWIST Watch and read thousands of fascinating timelines, or create your own. Complete with text, video and pictures to create a dynamic timeline mashup. Using myHistro, you can combine maps and timelines seamlessly into one great presentation, convert any public timeline into a personal pdf file, or export it into Google Earth format for offline storage. All completed timelines can be embedded into your blog and websites for maximum exposure. "

Gulsum mentioned that she is using an interactive timeline (http://www.tiki-toki.com/) as a web-based material to teach tenses. Very nice idea. This is a new timeline I hadn't seen before, which produces a 'mashup' of maps and a time line -- very neat idea. One idea to use with students is to get them to create a short personal history of their family.

"Ok, I'm a freak. I admit it. I don't use PowerPoint for teaching. Well, hardly ever. Once or twice a semester. Around my institution-and across the country-that puts me in the tiny minority. I know this because my students find it unusual enough to comment on. (Update: Since I wrote this, PowerPoint use in the classroom appears to be on the decline, at least at my institution. Hooray!) Why do I take this heretical position? Part of it is that PowerPoint doesn't mesh well with my personal teaching style. But mostly it's because PowerPoint is just too hard for me. Oh, not making slides. That part's easy. I mean that creating a PowerPoint presentation that effectively supports my goals in the classroom is too hard. It's way too much work. Some people can-I tip my hat to them-but me? I'm just not good enough to do that."

"Actually I've been quietly doing something for years: I've been declining to learn how to use the ubiquitous piece of software. As a presenter, I'm a PowerPoint virgin, though as an audience member I've been gang raped by PowerPoint slides more times than I can count. And what have I got from the experience? It is hard to say because my default reaction has been to blank it. I can't remember one single slide that I've ever been shown. And as I must have been shown hundreds of thousands of them altogether, a hit rate of zero seems rather on the low side. This doesn't mean I've never sat through a good PowerPoint presentation. But when I have, it has been because the person speaking managed to get a message across despite the distracting visual clamour going on behind them."