Group items tagged

I realize that my slides have been very text heavy in the past.  Now it is easy to think, duh, why put all the text on the slide, if I'm going to be sharing the information with my audience anyways.

This is very frustrating to me.  I've experienced this many times and I often end up picking a different picture.

This is a hard topic to explain to people. I have worked with staff for many years explaining bigger is better. You can always make it smaller and be ok but the oppposite is not true.

Being a business teacher I'm seeing a lot of similar traits to building resumes and app letters...the effectiveness of white space and as  mentioned here the eye test.

These slides are really hitting home with me with the larger font on the statistic. I'm realizing now that I haven't utilized statistics this way in the past in my presentations and will change that going forward!

I also find myself trying to be "consistent" so I don't vary the font size.  This illustrates how important it is to emphasize the important!

I've never seen a chart with the added emphasized arrow...I like it!  It definitely grabs your attention right away!

I'm definitely agreeing with using as few as bullet points as possible after looking through all the articles and lessons in this class. You're making me think real hard how I'm going to approach my college computer class that I teach. Obviously we aren't in PPT very long compared to the other Microsoft applications but never have I discouraged using bullets...now you're making this hard on me!  : )  There will definitely be some itmes and ideas that I take from this class and learn it forward.

Very simple but yet very productive!

I have done this far too often in the past and also been in presentations that used too many bullets. I'm very excited to learn how to avoid this pitfall.

When I first learned how to work with PPT, I thought animations and fades and such were a plus. Now I realize they get a little distracting.

This a great rule of thumb to go by!

As someone who is very visual in the way I process information, I can see that this second example would be what I would prefer. It's simple and it's a lot less to take in.

I thought too much white space was a bad thing. Here it actually works to make the image/text stand out. I always thought there had to be strict balance.

This happens at a lot of the conferences I attend. I get the documents with links and things but the actual presentation? It should NOT be any good without the speaker.

The AEA provides great clip art and real photography. I push it to my staff but I feel they use the google images way to much and they are not always appropriate.

This is a good way to get more pictures and less text.  It would also be easy to present on, given the pictures that you were showing.  I am assuming you show the whole slide at once, and not get one picture animated after another.

Good tip.  I found in looking at many of my presentations I had already highlighted key words.  So why did I add all the other text?

This is a helpful idea, I have never thought to do this before.

I agree - this is a really logical way to pair down my wordy slides without loosing important content. It also encourages note taking in the right way for students.

Occasionally, I have highlighted text on a slide, but I thought I was only putting relevant information on the slide with lots of bullets. Ugh. I could have probably gotten by (I now know I could have) with only putting the hightlighted word and another word or two on the slide, instead.

So much about PP I don't know how to do! I think it's time to take an advance PP class.

I have realized the same. I thought I knew PP pretty well, but starting to work on these new slides (and all the new information) has almost blown me away! I have a friend who just aced a college PP class - I am hoping she can help me work through some of the "new" stuff to me. I don't want PP to be too time comsuming, but I want them to be effective.

Makes sense when trying to tell a story and connect with the audience on an emotional level.

I definitely need to switch over to photography. I tend to use cutesy images. Not really sure why other than I like them. Using photos would bring a point home now if the right image is used.

Good rule of thumb.

3 seconds - will be a challenge.I will really have to try to think about  the audience and what might attract their attention..

If it takes longer, then I think a presenter should be quiet and give them time. It isn't that we can't give some silent time to read... it is just that we don't like to, I think.

Three seconds seems like a good time to transition anyway. 3 seconds of quite between slides, audience gets the glance and then the presenter talks...

I struggle with this when I present charts and graphs. The takeaway is to simplify the graph or chart to highlight what I'm trying to say.

We shouldn't need the time to read with only a few words on the slide. I like to give that "wait time" AFTER I have spoken. Still work work the same way - giving the audience time to comprehend.

When creating and preparing for a presentation, it is important to put yourself in the position of the audience.

I am guilty of including a lot of information on presentations. I need to remember that I can include information that is not a bullet point.

This is a pretty straightforward example of this process. It really isn't too hard once it is laid out like this, but it isn't a natural step for me either.

Great idea if it is possible with the slide content.

In my opinion, the slide would get too cluttered and distracting to do this.

This is a good correlation and great tip.  

I agree, this is one of my favorite tips so far, it made me rethink a couple of my slides!

This is good information and should be done during the 'analog' stage.

This one is tough because some companies demand the logo be placed on slides.

Good guideline for checking up on myself.

I like the steps used in this process.  I think the most challenging part of designing presentations is figuring out what is most important.  This seems so helpful in making those decisions.  

The most challenging part of design would be figuring out what to use to engage the audience (ie photograph). If we have the end design in mind, and know what our main points are, the text should be easily simplified.

Coming from an art teacher, this is GREAT advice!

Even coming from a very non-artistic person... this is GREAT advice! I couldn't make art when I try, but I can make crap... which means I know crappy visuals when I see them :)

This IS great advice, but...I will miss the cutesy graphics. (Just kidding.) Looking for the higher quality graphics that are appropriate is going to take some time.

I teach students about the parallel of white space with rests in music, I never thought about how that should be used in presentations before!

This is helpful to me, as I like to use charts, but have a hard time determining where to stop with information - balancing the need to know with the why do I care.

Again, I like the idea of consistency without the use of the templates. We are often drawn to the templates because they are consistent, but there are so many other ways to create the same effect.

I need to remember that this means relevant to the AUDIENCE!

It's interesting that the software we use to create presentations has bad presentation templates..

The templates were one of my original "draws" to PowerPoint. They made things so easy to get started.

But it made me laugh! :-)

It does. and all the examples here really help me to identify what is quality and what is not..

answer: almost every time i create a powerpoint. :-/

I did this in the past. I actually stopped using powerpoint because students didn't like it. I think I used the slides (as an outline) more than my students. I moved to telling more stories and relating topics to current interests and events. Students are much more engaged.

This is difficult! but it is rewarding once the final product comes out nice and clean...

These words stand out to me: support and supplement.

Good to remember to use no more than 2-3 different types of transition effects. 

Great point! I have seen some images or borders that are overused on PowerPoints! 

Imagining a presentation without visuals would have been crazy to think about before this class! 

This slide is great because it leaves me wanting to know more about the topic. I would really pay attention to the speaker because I would be intrigued by the visual! 

This is good to remember. We need to be okay with letting go of the need to "fill the slide". I know that I personally struggle with thinking I should add more visual appeal.

I never thought about whether an image is your primary or secondary focus on any given slide. The idea of fading the picture to the back for secondary is an interesting technique to make what needs to stand out more do just that.

This is good to note. It is time for us to step away from cliche pictures that will prevent our instruction from making an original, meaningful connection with our audience.

Presenters and teachers get in a hurry to create their visuals and use anything to fill the page. What I'm learning is that these images do more damage than good by distracting our audience.

It's interesting to see how something that can try to make the speaker more comfortable can actually work against the purpose they are speaking for. We need to ask ourselves, what is more important: our audience or our script?

This is a helpful reminder. It really hit me when I read one of the lessons in simplifying that stated we should never have a full sentence on a slide. We only need enough text for it to be memorable when we are sharing on it. In some cases, text may not even be needed to do this.

It's fine to use these images as comps until you decide whether or not the image will work but the high res image should be used in a final presentation.

Have to always keep this in mind.  The audience is the star- how can I make sure they feel satisfied after I'm finished withe my presentation?

This is something I have really learned in this class and had some interesting conversations with some people about this.  From my conversations I have learned that  people in occupations other than teaching have different oppinions about this.

I have to keep this in mind and keep working on keeping text as little as possible.

I need to take my own pictures more often.  My presentation is about history though so this is hard but give lots of presentations where I can take or use my own photographs.

This is hard for me.  I really like some of the templates in Keynote and don't feel like the audiences have seen them- the problem is they aren't always compatible with Powerpoint and sometimes have to present on a computer that only has Powerpoint.

Sometimes I'm like a kid when it comes to fonts and spend lots of times looking for a "cool" one.  I need to always remember that simple is better!

The thing is some kids have trouble with some of the letters in the fonts suggested. I use comic sans because I like the way the a and the g look. For special ed students with moderate disability, it looks more familiar to the way they are learning to print.

I'm not a designer and think I'm not very good at thinking like one- a weakness of mine.  I need to keep the design elements in mind.

We have 1-on-1 technology in our district, which is ideal for PLEs.  However, when the student forgets the laptop or has no power left in the battery, the smartphone comes in handy.  It is tougher to monitor the smartphone.

Autonomy is a great concern for me.  With collaboration being stressed in CCS, will students be able to conquer this skill without the use of technology?  At some point, some issues have to be discussed face-to-face, and there is a separate skill set for that environment.

I like the idea of Symballoo--kind of like a favorites list and bookmarks in my Google account.  What will take time for me is learning all the lingo attached to Symballoo!

What is aggregator?

I have always been a support of helpful tech resources that students are interested in, which is why I am always trying to learn more about different Apps and tools and explore them myself. Once I play around a bit, I usually introduce it to my students. Sometimes the resources are new, sometimes not, but there are so many wonderful tools out there. I visit Richard Byrne's site once a day! Currently, our language arts department has Chromebook carts for each classroom and the district is allocating more and more to different departments. They are wonderful to have, but students will get bored very quickly if they are only being used for tech sake. I LOVE the idea of having students create a Symbaloo. In fact, my plan is to have them begin one at the start of the school year and then they can add to it as we move through different units. This would have been particularly helpful during our research unit.  I also like the idea of "empower"ing students to use their phones and other mobile devices, but we do have a pretty strict policy on phone usage at our school. Sometimes students' phones work much more efficiently than the Chromebooks. (Alissa Hansen)

I think my students would love deciding which medium to use. I also have a lot of artistic students who would chose to create a paper/pencil project similar in format to a prezi presentation or blog with pictures.

Choice can be such a motivator for students, we all have our strengths and weaknesses! 

This is something I also worry about with the students I teach. While I appreciate their willingness to use technology and the creativity it lends itself to, I worry about their ability to solve problems and communicate effectively face to face. How do you ensure they are learning these essential skills as well when things are so individualized? 

This made me think about how difficult it is to have a PLE in a traditional classroom setting. We have 1:1 technology in our district, but students are extremely limited in what websites and programs they can use (You Tube, all social media, etc is blocked for students.) We also do not allow students to use tablets or smartphones in the classroom, with some teachers wanting to enact a school wide ban on smart phones and tablets so that they are not allowed in school at all. I am so excited to be learning about all of the opportunities PLEs offer students, but I also think there are many changes that will have to be made before we can start moving in this direction.

I also worry about autonomy, as I teach freshmen English and 14 and 15 year olds do not have a "high level of self-management and awareness," at least not many. Like any classroom, however, guidelines need to be firmly in place and I think autonomy would need to be frontloaded before jumping into a PLE. I do think students would do very well in this type of environment. In fact, I often have students telling me about different resources they go to on a daily basis...whether it's to get advice, read a review, write a review, or even write a short story! The possibilities are endless, but I do think structure needs to be in place. At least to begin with. I start the year with my freshmen discussing and reading/watching material regarding civility, we made a code of civility in each class, and then we blog about our practicing of it throughout the year. I would like to implement a PLE in much the same manner. (Alissa Hansen)

I do think that using a Symbaloo is a great idea to manage resources, and it looks like something my students would enjoy working with. However, my school has really moved towards using Google Classroom and teachers having Google sites, which I spend a lot of time and energy on with both. I think too many tech items can be a cognitive overload for students and teachers alike. I think if I am to use something like Symbaloo, I would need to eliminate at least Classroom or Sites and maybe even some of the other many sites that I have students use (Newsela, NoRedInk, Kahoot, etc.). It's just hard for me, especially with the site that I have created because I have spent so much time on it over the past three years. I just don't think students would benefit from having to click around to a lot of different resources, especially if they are teacher-created. (Alissa Hansen)

I like the idea of a daily log in for updates.  I think this would work in the Green Belt classroom for relaying information as students don't attend the same schedule each day.

Great quote on the benefits of PLE, but getting students who are not "ready" or mature enough to handle this type of self-direction will struggle. A challenge for teachers indeed! I think the classroom (physical environment) setup is the first thing that needs to be changed in order to prepare students for this type of autonomy. What do the rest of you think? (Alissa Hansen)

I guess I should also state that I do not think students are getting enough opportunities to be autonomous, which is why they struggle and fear it when they are given the opportunity. (Alissa Hansen)

I am really looking forward to starting this with students. It's like a one-stop shop for their individual needs. One of the biggest setbacks I have faced in recent years was trying out a multitude of tech resources and although some were helpful, clicking around all over the place was overwhelming! (Alissa Hansen)

I was devistated when google removed igoogle, and I think this could definitely take its place. I agree that students will appreciate the convenience of this site.

Alissa, I get overwhelmed with the amount of resources and tools available. I often don't know where to start, so I opt not to. Thankfully, I'm taking this class and I have the opportunity to investigate and use some PLE tools like Diigo and Symbaloo, things I've never heard of until now!

I think this would be very powerful and I would love to create something like this, personally. I think my accellerated students would thrive, but worry that my lower level students would struggle due to a lack of confidence in themselves and lack of self-awareness. I wonder if there are certain organizational PLE templates that would work better for certain learning styles? Or perhaps a template would defeat the pourpose.....

I love the idea of supporting students individually, I just struggle to envision being able to support all my students adequately within my classroom. I feel like it would be easy to digress with a student over their PLE, but feel it could be difficult to find the time.

I sooo agree!!!! I would love to watch how an expert teacher teaches in a PLE classroom! I love the concept and the idea I am just struggling to make it work in the classroom.

I like this concept, I think it is easier to do in a classroom that is content specific.  I can see where it would be more difficult if a teacher was responsible for teaching multiple content areas.  At the same time, that teacher doesn't have to be the the information source for all the students, time is just the factor.  

That's interesting.  I think PLEs would be easier to manage in multiple content areas because they would have to be working on their own thing.  The environment is really suited for it.

Subscribing to news feeds and blogs would be a great technique to compare and contrast views related to the students' topics of interest. This could be difficult for the teacher to monitor, digo might be a great way to track this!

This is what I am trying to develop in my preschool class room where the students are in charge of their own learning, and I am more of a resource. What I struggle with is classroom management, I feel like all of the students are demanding my attention and I can't help everyone. 

Sometimes it is hard to fathom the classroom management of a PLE of 12-22 students, which is what I currently have, let alone 30+ like many districts have.  

Having your students be more independent is wonderful.  This past year I did less large group instruction and more small groups.  I taught my kindergarten students "Ask 3 before me".  They had to ask 3 people for help or what we were doing before coming to me.  When they came to me, especially when i was working with my small group, I asked them "did you ask 3 before me?".  If they didn't, they would just turn around and go find something.  This is a start for having your students become more independent.  BY creating a PLE for young students, they feel more in control of their learning too.  If you, the teacher, set it up and give them access to a variety of things to do, they will enjoy what they are doing and feel they are making "their own choices".  

I don't want to sound negative in my post here because I really am all for personalized learning. I wonder how we can get administration on board with us. I struggle with old school administration who tell me as a teacher that I can not use my phone during the day, that I can not use facebook, and about passed out when they realized that parents text me, questions and changes in their child's schedule. I did have a secret facebook page and it was wonderful I would use it to include parents with our studies. 

Good point. I agree with your post. It is hard to get some administrators going along with this new idea of personalized learning. Even at my other school I taught at Facebook and some other social networking sites were blocked. I like the idea of having a Facebook page with parents and students to keep parents informed with stuff going on at school, and also a way for students to post and communicate with parents and classmates. I think these social websites are necessary in schools, but the big question is how do we get teachers and administration to go for it? 

Our District has blocked a lot of the social sites as well, it comes from the upper levels of administration and not our building admin.  I think they tend to be out of touch with the possibilities and fear the unknown.   It would be great to use Facebook for connecting with parents and students.  The alternative given to us is Canvas in which parents have access to teachers.  But it isn't as easy or convenient as Facebook.  That is certainly one site I wish we could use at work.   I do like the idea of personalized learning environments, especially the concept of students seeking knowledge that is useful for them!  This appears to be the best way to create life-long learners!

Facebook is blocked at my school as well, which is a shame since it'd be a way to create an immersion like setting in my Spanish classroom.  If I see something cool on the site that related to class, such as photos from a friend's time in Panama with the Peace Corps, I turn the wifi off on my phone so that Facebook will work, and just walk around the class showing kids, which is risky, I know.  I'm sure there is a cord that I could connect from my phone to SmartBoard to make this more feasible.  I should probably get a separate teacher facebook page for things like this.  Some of the articles that pop up in my feed from magazines like Women's Health are not school appropriate!  

by teaching students how to be self learners and how to be active in the learning process I think that as kids and adults these students will want to be life long learners and not someone who only does it because they have to. Or worse yet lets everyone else do it for them. I love the independence PLE classrooms create

I see so many students who do not understand how to play an active role in their learning because they have been conditioned to rely on the teacher. Many students get very anxious and really don't know what to do when they are asked to complete self-directed activities. I think PLE will provide students with the opportunity to take responsibility for their own learning, which will help them throughout their lives.

This is very important! I see the (LMS) approach in our school and in many other schools. I feel like it wouldn't be hard to confuse (LMS and PLE) these different approaches, because they seem so different. The chart gave a good outline of how different they are compared to each other. 

The chart is helpful in understanding the differences.  The LMS could also be a tool in a student's PLE.  

Agreed, charts and lists make learning so much easier than paragraphs, at least for me. 

I like the idea of getting student feedback on technology and the use of different resources. You can really learn student interest and their honest opinions through surveys or different forms of feedback. 

These look like awesome reasons why Symbaloo is a great learning tool for students. I can definitely see this resource being used in grades k-12. Although, for example, I teach 1st grade and I can see my students loving this, but they will need lots of guidance and modeling of how to set it up and use it to help them become independent with it. I can see once it's set up it would be awesome for students to have all of their favorite resources and sites all in one place! 

I like the idea of having research available at one spot.  So many times when I ask a student where he/she found the information, it cannot be located.  I want to see projects with more detail.  

I have a concern about distractions.  Students tend to use their phones and computers more for entertainment and chatting with friends over research and presentation.  

Agreed, a high school I taught at did not have locks on lockers, meaning kids brought their phones to class so that they wouldn't be stolen. Preventing snapchatting was difficult for me!  

I have experienced the same issues with my high schools students.  I may take a different approach based on one of the side articles that stated, "students are still learning while they are wasting time because they will see consequences are for late work."

I would like to have some strategies to help students having an understanding of the shift in learning for them to become more involved in their learning.  How do I motivate them to go beyond bookwork to exploring topics?

When you find the answer, please fill me in too!

I feel this is a big struggle right now in our district.  Teachers are wanting their students to dig deep into a topic or their work.  Students are given choices but still only surface the top of the water, doing the bare minimum, when we want them to dive in and go to the bottom.  In my classroom, my students have a writing journal.  We write in this "special" journal once a week.  At the beginning of the year, I give them ideas to write about.  Some write while others will simply draw a picture because they don't know how to write.  By the middle of the year, every is writing something, whether it is a complete sentences or a few words.  I will give them a few choices to choose from or they can write about something they want to.  BY the end of the year, they know to take out their journals and write about anything they want.  I want my students to take control of their own learning and reflect back on their work over the year so by having this year long journal, they can see their progression and how they took control over their writing.  

With my limited experience with Symbaloo, I agree with the fact that it does seem easy add and customize content.  I think my students would find this to be a helpful tool.  I also like the idea of encouraging students to use it for tracking both personal and school related information.  

This is a good reminder.  Students need to take on a more active role, but there is always a good balance.  It probably shouldn't be all one way or all another way.  

How true!  It will be difficult for some students to lead their own learning.  They have been passive for so long it will be a shock to their systems.

So like the apps that come with an iphone. 

Just set up my account and can't wait to see what else I can add.  This is a great time saver.

I really like the idea of showing students how to use this technology and their learning for both "professional and personal use." I think when you tell students that it is "ok" for them to use technology this way, they learn more because they aren't compartmentalizing their usage of this technology as only for school, which means that they are more likely to use the program and play around with it, which will increase their learning opportunities.

I think it is a great idea to have a place for students to "store" the information they need to research and interact with their content. My students have used symbaloo in computer class and it has taken away a lot of the management concerns. Students know where to go to find the tools they need to keep progressing with their learning!

What a great idea!  When that notebook with all the notes is missing, it could be stored and used during class instead of searching or pretending to search.  Maybe we could teach them responsibility again!

This is exactly what we want - students to have a high degree of control over their work! By allowing them to customize the learning experience and connect with others, including experts, students are getting real-life experience that will help them solve the problems they face in their everyday lives. A PLE can help students organize this self-directed learning. Students will likely know what they want to learn but organizing that learning is often what students need support in. PLEs are helpful in providing students with tools they need to gather information, conduct research, and present their findings!

In my opinion, this is exactly what we want students to be able to do! By supporting students in their academic endeavors, students learn to view teachers as guides or facilitators rather than "the one who knows all." In thinking about what we want students to be able to do when they leave school, we want students to be able to do seek out their own research, contacts, and resources to solve everyday problems. If students are never presented with opportunities to direct and manage their own learning, they will not be as successful!

You are right!  If students do not get to practice this skills by doing then they will struggle when they enter the workforce. 

This sounds absolutely ideal. The challenge we as educators face with students using their own technology during instruction and competing for their attention has steadily increased over recent years. How cool would it be if it were used to enhance their learning rather than get in the way of it!

I do have some concerns that a lot of the PLE is based on on-line learning. Students use technology constantly, but I have also seen them get frustrated with technology and on-line learning when it seems hard to navigate or they are not receiving adequate feedback.

As someone completely new to this type of program, I really like the looks of it.  It appears friendly and seems to lend itself to some really great things.

This is really handy for parents as well.  I send them the link and they can access my web mix at home.  When I make an update, I alert parents via my shutterfly site.  Parents can go to my web mix and have their child show them games we are playing that reinforces our learning goals.  It is also nice because parents don't have to download anything or search for hours on something educational for their child to do because it is already done for them.

This is so great because I can share this with parents and their child can access my game page at home.  If parents allow screen time at home, I feel that by providing this web mix to them to access will only benefit their child and help them learn and reinforce our learning in the classroom.  

This is the comment many teachers were hoping to read.  I understand the hesitation to give students control of the learning environment, but is it working by controlling them?

PLE research shows there are less behavior issues because kids get to learn based on their interests promoting intrinsic motivation to learn.  I think it would be great to teach in a PLE.