A few years ago, I participated in a workshop by Cliff Ping on creating effective PowerPoint presentations. It was an excellent experience with just as much focus on determining content as how to create the presentation. During this workshop, Ping shared 10 essentials you need to know about PowerPoint presentations. Here are four that you will find quite helpful:

While Editing -

• Hold down CTRL and press the ] key to increase font size and [ to decrease font size.
• Hold down CTRL and press the M key to create a new slide at the end of your presentation.

While showing the presentation -

• Hold down CTRL and press the P key to change your mouse into a pen with which you can draw on your presentation. Press ESC to go back to a mouse.
• Press the letter B if you want your screen to turn black while you are making a point and W if you want it to turn white. Press the letter again to return to your presentation.

Finally, you can use your keyboard to move forward and backward in your presentation. To move forward (or activate one of your animations), press the space bar. To move back to the previous slide, press the Backspace key.

In order to embed the video you have created into a Power Point presentation, you first need to convert it to a .wmv file. All movies need to be in that format to play well with Power Point.I have created a video tutorial to show how to do that with a program I talked about earlier, VideoLAN.
Assuming you have downloaded that program, click the tutorial link below, there is also a .pdf file of the steps needed to convert a file using VideoLAN.

Video Tutorial

Converting Flash Document

When that step is complete, you can simply go to the page in Power Point you want to embed the video and follow these steps.1. Select “Insert” then “Movies and Sounds” then “Movie From File”
2. Browse to the file you want to embed and select “OK”
3. it will ask if you want it to play automatically or when clicked, I suggest “When Clicked”.
4. Test your slide to make sure everything works!

You may be familiar with Web 2.0 or you may have never heard of it. There are teachers in both camps. Susan McLester, editor of Technology and Learning magazine, and educational technologist David Jakes compiled an “introduction” to Web 2.0 in this Web 2.0 For Educators article. McLester writes a brief overview about common elements with Web 2.0 and also presents a “pocket dictionary” of Web 2.0 terms. Jakes introduces how professional development and visual literacy are impacted by Web 2.0. This is a quick read article that will help you see the big picture.

Bernie Dodge, best known as the creator of the webquest, has written an article titled Four NETS for Better Searching. It has been available on the web for a few years, but was recently updated. This article shares four key ideas to keep in mind when searching for information on the Internet:

Start Narrow – To use Dodge’s reasoning, “If you know what you’re after, why not start by asking for it as precisely as you can.”

Find Exact Phrases – You will find this most helpful when looking for exact phrases such as proper names of places, people and specific resources. 

Trim Back The URL – Many sites have content within folders, and in some cases, folders within folders. Try removing the last part of the address. You will often find more information on your topic. It is also a way to troubleshoot if you get the dreaded “page cannot be found” message. By trimming back the address, you may find the web site creator simply moved the file to a different location.

Look for Similar Pages – Google has advanced search functions that takes key words and ideas in your search term and finds similar pages.

In the article, Dodge provides some worksheets on which you can test the ideas he presents. Worth taking a look.

In addition to the How To Articles that Steve mentioned in his previous post, TechLearning online also provides How To Videos for quick tips on skills such as mail merge, saving powerpoint slides as digital pictures, understanding web 2.0, using social networking, and writing a blog post in WordPress. They even have a video showing the skill that Steve walks you through two posts ago at Creating Picture Shapes .

Technology and Learning adds a new “Quick Flick” each week and archives previous movies. See them all at http://www.techlearning.com/quickflicks

The people at techlearning.com (also the publishers of the free Technology and Learning magazine) understand the limited time available to teachers. They have produced a series called “How To: Cool Tools” that provides simple explanations on how to integrate technology into the curriculum. Most of the articles are relatively short and include several graphics to illustrate the steps described.

As I write this post, the six most recent articles on this site provide ideas for using multimedia (images, video clips, digital stories) with your curriculum. There is an article on “how to take notes online” written by a west Michigan educator. You can even learn how to create your own interactive CD. 

Sometimes, a little variety can go a long way. Consider placing a picture for your PowerPoint presentation inside a shape (such as a triangle, star, circle, etc).  It will take away some risk of being seen as mundane.

The following tip works with PowerPoint versions 2000-2004, and while I have not personally tested Office 2007, I would assume it is still available in that version.

Step 1:
Click on Drawing Tools from the “Drawing Toolbar” (most likely at the bottom of your screen). Select Basic Shapes (or any of the categories) to select a shape in which you want to place the picture.

Step 2:
Right click on the shape, then select “Format AutoShape” from the drop-down menu. Click on the down arrow next to the Fill “Color” and select “Fill Effects”.

Step 3:
From the “Fill Effects” dialogue box, select Picture from the four tabs presented at the top, and then click on the “Select Picture” button.

Step 4:
Browse to find the picture you want to insert inside the shape, then click Insert. From the remaining dialogue box, select OK.

Step 5:
Select Preview if you want to see what the shape would look like, or click OK to accept your choice.

It is easy to ‘ignore’ copyright law because of the effort it takes to properly document where information was found.  There is a free resource available (yes, we like those kind of resources) that makes it easy to document: KnightCite

With KnightCite, you still need to pull together the basic information such as authors, titles, publishing location and year, and more, but with simple entry into a form, KnightCite produces the proper documentation to include in your project. It also understands that some teachers may require the MLA citation style, others will prefer APA and some will ask for Chicago style citation, and offers help in all three styles.

The best part is that when you have entered the information, KnightCite produces the proper documentation for you to simply copy and paste into your project.

When it comes to photo organizing, editing, enhancing, and sharing; there are several tools available. I like Picasa (a free download from Google) for organizing my pictures but its editing and enhancing features aren’t especially strong. I do like the fact that I can easily upload pictures from Picasa on my computer to Picasa Web Albums online. You can choose to have your albums public – and link to them in your blog – or private – and invite those with whom you’d like to share.

Another tool that I’ve been using for editing and enhancing my photos is Picnik. The beta version was free for a while and then split into a pared down section of tools for free and the “Pro” version with expanded features for an annual fee. You can upload your photos from several sources including Picasa (yeah!) – and Flickr – and there are great editing and enhancing tools. These are now (almost) all free, including the ability to place text in – and frames around – your photos. Picnik offers several sharing options and you can download the edited or enhanced photos to your computer to use in other applications. The only downside to the free version is advertising – but we’re all used to ignoring that!

While every classroom may have different types of technology equipment, the common thread is how to organize the resources you have. Check out the Managing Classroom Technology Resources web site.

The “Hardware” section provides tips for connecting as well as caring for hardware. The “Management” section gives ideas for placement, signage, requesting assistance and more. The “Grouping” category focuses on using technology with whole group, small groups, and partners. The last three sections are geared primarily for teachers in the district hosting the site (Kent School District in Washington state), but you may find a nugget that triggers your creative juices.