Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Slide Presentation Design - There is an Exception to Every Rule

When I teach slide presentation design - the main thrust is for designers who use bullets to create messages.  To that extent, I recommend use of no more than 2-3 fonts, font color and the use of the 6x6 rule.  The 6x6 rule is no more than 6-7 words on a line and no more than 6 lines per slide. 

When attending the Symposium of the Future of Textbooks last week, I was reminded of exceptions to the rules I just stated. Cable Green did an amazing presentation (as he always does) on open education.  His slides punctuated his presentations.  Of course, his slides are available for re-use and re-mixing with the Creative Commons license.  The link to the slide presentation he did last Thursday evening is at http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/documents/Cable_EveningPlenaryKeynote.pdf

On Friday, David Wiley, was the opening plenary speaker.  He spoke on affordable education. 
His slides are also available for re-use and re-mixing with the Creative Commons license.  The link for his slides is at http://www.affordablelearninggeorgia.org/documents/Wiley-ALG-UGA.pdf

I suggest that you take a few moments to review the slides from the links above.  Notice, that they were used to supplement presentations.  Both presentations were outstanding.  If you have an opportunity to hear with of the presenters - do just that. 

How to Use Hog Wild Questions - Interesting Concept

I was reviewing abstracts for a conference and ran across a concept developed by Ben Johnson - How to Use Hog Wild Questions.  Johnson suggests that the instructor could use Bloom's taxonomy and develop question while constructing a lesson.  It makes sense.  As I look forward to tweaking courses for next semester and developing a new one - I plan to use the concept. 

My idea is to "flip a lesson" into an interactive eBook chapter.  SoftChalk v9 and iBooks Author both provide ways to create an interactive ebook.  I will work on developing questions for the chapters using Johnson's approach.

You can read more about Johnson's concept on his blog at http://www.edutopia.org/blog/hog-wild-questions-classroom-ben-johnson