SlideShare and Scribd

SlideShare is a remarkable piece of technology that allows us to play around with our PowerPoint presentations in a number of significant ways. A slide show can be very effective in engaging a class, but a series of pictures on their own will quickly become dull to learners who are used to multiple digital content on the one medium.

The editing facilities of SlideShare mean that we can add music and speech to further add interest to learners. Individual slides can have narration and music put to them, rather than an ongoing running commentary throughout the entire slide show, so that, if slides are paused to communicate with the class during a presentation and allow interaction between peers and learners to teacher, the narration of the slide show will begin again at the appropriate juncture when starting play again.

I spent several hours playing around with the programs that convert MP4 files to MP3 so that it could be placed into SlideShare and I could add a narrative to my Acne PowerPoint presentation. I recorded into Audacity, then was told I had to download a program to allow me to export this file into another. I went onto Paretologic and LAME and several others I can no longer recall, but had great difficulty finding a way of moving my narration into SlideShare

I will concentrate my efforts next time into finding an Internet program to record my narration onto, so that instead of having to upload the file from my computer to SlideShare, I can just cut and paste the URL of my online file into SlideShare. I know that this will work, and I believe it will not take me so many hours for that first exploration of trialing new programs. I realise that the way I tried previously will work if I muddle around a bit longer. I think the key point to remember when you are experimenting with new technologies is 1: be patient, 2: persevere 3: record your successes so that you don't have to repeat the experimental process again the next time you need to apply the new technology 4: don't slam your computer into the wall, causing serious structural damage to the house and irreparable damage to the computer.

Scribd is a website that gives us a forum to share our files, images and slideshows with the general public, or a selected audience. Within a week of posting my PowerPoint on Scribd, I had over 60 views. This immediate feedback from people around the world would certainly capture the imagination of young learners and motivate them to present the best work they can. What a fantastic outlet to share creations and comment on the work of others. I will definitely be employing this technology to engage my learners and give them that sense of authenticity, which is so important to retaining motivation throughout the learning journey.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation that I embedded in an earlier posting through Scribd. I have embedded it this time throughm SlideShare, just to make sure I am confident using that part of the new technology.

Acne Slide Show

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