Colette Cassinelli’s edtech VISION

A cry for help came out on Twitter this morning from cliotech asking how to convert PowerPoint files to *.jpg. I responded explaining JPG is one of the file extension options available when you choose “save as” – -  but Jennifer twittered back that wasn’t available.  So, I used my trusty Jing screenshot to snap an image of my PowerPoint version and sent a copy of the image to her using Twitpic.  Finally – Jennifer checked with her IT department and found out that PowerPoint wasn’t properly installed on her computer – voila – problem solved.

Sometimes a picture tells it better than a written explanation.  But more importantly, I realized how easy it is to have your own virtual tech support team with your twitter network.

I know about the PowerPoint conversion because I use it all the time with my students.  I use this feature  when I want students to make a simple image but don’t want spend time teaching them how to do it in Photoshop. For example, my MS students set the PowerPoint screen size to 5×7 and made postcards for our Postcard Geography project with simple Word Art and images.  When you use “save as jpg” in PowerPoint, you have the option to save the current slide or each slide as a separate image.  I also use “save as jpg” when uploading PowerPoint slides to VoiceThread so the background designs stay intact.

Anyway, I love my PLN with Twitter and was glad I could help today … because I know tommorrow – I’m going to be the one asking, “Does anyone know how to …..”.

Many students come to my class feeling “comfortable” with PowerPoint so my goal is to teach them some news skills to keep the focus on content or make formatting and animating quicker, easier and consistent.

One of the ways that I do this is to teach my students how to create their own original design template by using the slide master. The preformatted design templates are overused and not very interesting – plus they usually don’t match the topic. I teach students how to go to View / Master / Slide Master and design a template from scratch. I encourage students to choose background colors, designs or images that match their topic.

The slide master shown above was created for a slide presentation for “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”. The images on the left are hyperlinked to a slide to explain more about that wonder. The column and text banner appear on every page. This student put a lot of thought into the design of their PowerPoint and had it coordinate with their topic. It was much better than choosing an overused Design Template.

The student is now more than half done since all the text and slide formatting is completed. The next steps include changing the slide layouts, transitions and adding images/sounds/movies.

Animations for titles and body paragraphs can be added to the slide master as well as “actions” to link the navigation bar to individual slides.

By the way, the PPT presentation (right) is not shown in front of the whole class. We save our presentations in a shared folder and then each student opens the presentations and interacts with them (by clicking on links/action buttons) more like a webpage. Students don’t need to sit through all 30 presentations but most of them eventually view everyone’s projects – cuz they’re kids and they are curious.

I asked students to give opinions about the use of the slide master:

• It makes it easier to format all the slides at once.
• You can match your design to your topic.
• It makes the show more professional looking – but I still like change some of the background designs for some slides.
• I probably won’t go search for design templates online anymore – I’ll just make my own.
• I used to spend a lot of time animating all of the text. Completing the animations in the slide master saves TONS of time.
• I like using the slide master and Word outline together – it’s so much easier.
• I never knew that you could add action buttons or hyperlinks in PowerPoint to make the projects more interactive.

Photo Credit: PowerPoint made by C.

Students always seem to get excited when a teacher explains that they are going to use PowerPoint for a project. There is something about PowerPoint that is creative, entertaining and appealing to kids.

My concern has always been that all of the focus on the “fluff” of PowerPoint will lead to PowerPointlessness. PowerPoint is a presentation tool so why is the content and message seem to be lost in the production?

I have come up with a solution that counteracts the focus on formatting and not on content. I teach students how to write out all of the content for their PowerPoint slides in a Word outline and focus on the information before I allow them to open up the PowerPoint program.

Today I taught the students how to change Word from Print view to outline view and place all slide titles on Level 1 of the outline and all body content on Level 2 of an outline. Students spent several days researching their topic and writing out the information on the outline. Resources were cited right on the outline and the focus was clearly what information was to be conveyed in the presentation.

When the students completed the outline, they opened PowerPoint and then opened the Word outline IN PowerPoint – and presto – all the text was placed on the appropriate slides. The students reaction is the best part – they loved it. They were amazed that these two software pieces work together seamlessly.

In class we discussed the value of what we just accomplished. Students commented:

• You can focus on the writing and not get distracted by playing with animations.
• Its easier to keep your train of thought when working in outline view.
• You can write the outline at home and then come to school to work on PowerPoint
• You must set up the outline correctly otherwise this process doesn’t work.
• It was cool to see all the text on the correct slides.
• I never knew this could be done before.
• I love learning new shortcuts!

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeltelling/292642699/