3. Rethink PowerPoint and other presentation strategies. Attack the presentation culture in your school or district. Is everyone forced to either listen to or deliver bullet-driven PowerPoint? Are you exploring other presentation options? Have you considered other strategies for improving standard presentation tools? You have options and you can take the lead. Share some background reading on PowerPoint reform:
- Presentation Zen
- PowerPoint Extreme Makeover (by Dean Shareski)
- Cliff Atkinson: Beyond Bullets
- Tom Peters on Presentation Excellence
- Gettysburg Address PowerPoint (What might happen if Lincoln got into bad communication habits)
- Stop Your Presentation Before it Kills Again
- Creative Commons Presentations (cool models)
- TED.com (Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers make terrific models for presenting)
4. Podcast your booktalks or book reviews or get your students to do it. Use Apple’s Garage Band or the free editing and recording program, Audacity. See my post on Booktalking 2.0. Consider using slideshow tools like VoiceThread to very quickly create illustrated booktalks to share widely, perhaps for your state’s best books lists.
Some wonderful examples of this thing include:
- Bookwink.com
- Just One More Book
- Runkle School Book Review Podcasts
- Nancy Keane’s Book Talks Quick and Simple
- Readers Circle Booktalks (Pike School)
- Hopkinton High/Middle Schools
- Portland Public Schools
5. Tell a digital story (or inspire student storytelling projects) Amazing work is done in this new media-rich genre for communication. You can use a tool like VoiceThread for this one too. Examine state-of-the-art in the creation and sharing of narrative. For example, take a look at the personal narrative Mom Not Mom, this story about The Gettysburg Address or these or these.
- Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
- Center for Digital Storytelling
- Elements of Digital Storytelling
- Marco Torres’ iCan Film Festival
- Apple Video Journalism
- 50 Ways to Tell a Story (Alan Levine–CogDogRoo)
This modest list is just a beginning. Please share your own ideas and examples!
About Joyce Valenza
Thanks so much for spreading the word about our podcast!
I hope your readers will send us their own children’s book reviews (audio) so we can include them in future editions of our show.
Hi Joyce,
Love these suggestions! Voicethread, in particular, looks right up my alley!
FYI, I’ve been putting up my fourth graders’ podcasts on our class blog since last January. First we recorded their readings at our weekly Literary Salon, but this year I also recorded them as we did a study of the marvelous new wordless book, The Arrival by Shaun Tan (Scholastic). I keep my ipod and recorder at hand (literally in a bag I keep on me) and record frequently. The kids have become very adapt at passing around the ipod, but I’m hoping the school will get a mike that will make it easier for us to record conversations. I believe you saw my kids’ blog last year? I’m being more systematic this year. Training them via the class blog now (the podcasts, scanning, commenting, etc) so they are going to be very ready to start their own blogs come January.
I manage to lose track of your blog and am happy to return to it. (I just wish I had more time to do this all, but I’m prepping for NCTE, am on Newbery, and am still a classroom teacher!)
I seem to recall SLJ doesn’t take to URLs so do find my blog (educating alice) and my class blog (edinger house) when you have time.
Joyce,
Since conferences are going on at my school, I finally had time to reread your blog. I am totally in agreement with the Next IF. Most of us have the same issues at school…fear! I have just started my own blog..I know, it took too long..What is the best way to get people to make comments? My blog is de-Vine Inspirations (like Marvin Gaye’s “Grapevine”)on edublog. I am very excited about this communication because I love reading your blog. I was looking forward to your webinar on CFF. I am sure it will be rescheduled, so I will be there. I wish you and the group much success with AASL Web 2.0. It might take lots of kicking and screaming to get some of us to where we should be…but if anyone can do, its U. Happy Thanksiving.