It could be useful for course content. In this case, lecture notes from the next to last class meeting of my ANTZ202 Introduction to Culture course. Don’t know if I like what SlideShare did with my slides (they’re less readable than the original). And no Web application seems to support PPTX files from PowerPoint 2007.
[slideshare id=40905&doc=antz202-meeting-13-changes-23141&w=425]
Hi, I just found out about slideshare and agree that it does have interesting potential for teaching. In particular, I saw how someone used slideshare on their blog, along with an ODEO podcast that contained “change slide” instructions in the podcast. That way people could hear a presentation and simply click on next slide as instructed. There are programs that combine these features, podcasting and slidesharing (profcast and camtasia) but I’ve had problems with them and using slideshare wit podcasting is promising.
Best,
Chris
Chris,
Thanks for the comment!
A friend of mine uses ProfCast in his teaching and seems quite happy with it. He and I should meet to discuss this. What were the problems you had with ProfCast and CamTasia?
The Odeo+Slides format reminds me of Tinkerbell, for some reason. 😉
I did podcast my lectures, this semester. Could have indicated slide changes in the audio to make it easier to follow along. Maybe in the future.
One thing I like to do is post both slides and lecture notes. The lecture notes are in outline and should be easier for students to work with. In fact, I’d like to give students an opportunity to play with the outline while I’m lecturing.
Enkerli
I used a trial of profcast with a trial of keynote and no problem. Then I bought profcast and tried using pp instead because my keynote trial had ended. No dice. I don’t know if it’s because my pp software is a few years old, or because profcast prefers keynote. Then again it could be a more serious problem. But I’m dead in the water with profcast now. I will probably buy keynote soon…
I’m teaching a summer course and I’m serioiusly thinking of using slideshare in it, just to see what it’s like. I find that you have to fuss with these toys in real situations to really see what its good for. Often, things are not so wonderful in practice, or very limited.
Chris
Chris,
I certainly agree about real-life situations and trying these things out in appropriate contexts. In fact, I’m perfectly fine with trying different things during a semester. Actually, I probably try to be more consistent during a summer session because there isn’t much time to evaluate and adapt to new tools (for learners as for teachers). But it also means that a summer semester is a good time to get extensive practise with some specific methods.
Too bad about ProfCast and PPT.
Not sure what the ideal solution is. ProfCast’s advantage is that the files can be used on an iPod, which several students have. Well, MP3 podcasts are even easier to carry around.
It’d be great to have a “lecture preparation tool” from which we could produce different types of content, add them to a course website (say, in Moodle) and possibly edit collaboratively.
But I do tend to get overboard with these things.
Do have fun with summer teaching. Report results on your blog, if you do try slideshare and/or podcasting…
Thanks again for your comments! Quite valuable!
Interview with Slideshare founder Jon Boutelle.Jon Boutelle was born in Boston and grew up on a farm in Massachusetts. A degree holder in Psychology from the Brown University, RI,he along with Rashmi Sinha and Amit Ranjan have been on the helm of SlideShare along with the rest of the team based in Delhi and the US.
Read more about it at http://www.loscreador.com/2007/06/16/interview-with-slideshare-founder-jon-boutelle/
@Mrugesh: Thanks for the link. With all the slideshow-sharing features around, it’s good to see into the thinking of one such creator!