Survey

Presentation

I presented my keynote to one of my friends in class today. He said I needed maybe some more different animations. They did say they were a little bored, so I need to work on making it less boring by adding additional unknown facts. He also said that for some things, I could explain in detail more about. For example, one of the interesting things about blogger is that you can get paid for it, so I can talk a little more about that. Other than that, he said my presentation was good, so next time, I'll want to edit my keynote a little more. I just really hope it won't bore the audience.

What I did today?

Today after reading the article, I worked on my Keynote about Blogger. At this point, I'm basically almost done with mine. The challenging part is that I need to find a lot of neat information that people don't already know about blogger. I did find out things that I had no clue about, so hopefully it'll be enough. I'm also trying to make my Keynote more simple, and less boring. I'll try to add more pictures to make it less boring.

Article

Today I read an article about powerpoint called "We have met the enemy and he is powerpoint". It was mainly about how PowerPoints are affecting the military. It explains how generals have to make PowerPoints and for some, they have to spend most of their time doing so. PowerPoints are only useful when officers need to tell things briefly, but not when they need to tell a lot of information. Worst of all, many of the officers and general have to sit through boring PowerPoints, sometimes even every day. PowerPoint is definitely an issue in the military. "It's dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control."

I don't think PowerPoint is to blame for some of the military issues, but it does make problems worse.

Keynote

Today, I started my project about web 2.0 tools, and I'm using blogger as my tool. I created my presentation on keynote, and things are running pretty smoothly. To get my pictures, all I have to do is take screenshots which is command+shift+3. I got a lot done today and I'm starting with the pros of blogger. I'll try to put less text on my slides so that it won't be as boring, and I'll also use some more of the tips from the powerpoint I watched last time.

Death by Powerpoint

We looked at a powerpoint presentation today, and I learned a lot of interesting information about how to make the powerpoint less boring. For example, I learned that:
-you need to really get to the point
-don't put too much information
-a lot of pictures!
-you need to rehearse what you say
-interesting and significant statements
-make it memorable
-and other great tips

After looking up things about the boring powerpoint issue, I found some other solutions:
-Don't have too many visuals or animations, it causes a distraction
-Large and simple fonts
-In the beginning, list what you will be talking about in the first few slides
-Try using more unique templates, rather than templates given on the program
-Try to add a little humor, to keep audience interested
-Try avoiding full sentences

Keynote:
Luckily, I have already used keynote before, so using it to make a powerpoint won't be very difficult to me.  It's actually a lot like pages, except it has some other different effects. I like how you get to choose from so many cool themes, and some of them look really professional, and others look more like for fun. Hopefully I'll learn more things that will make my powerpoint better.

Web 2.0 Tools

What are Web 2.0 Tools?
Basically it's a way to get the computer user more interactive. They are used so that the user of the computer can customize things how they want it to be on the web. So while the user is viewing a certain website. They could personally customize that website for themselves as well. They can also be used to share different types of media and information like videos.
Examples of these tools would be like Facebook, Flickr, Youtube, and also Blogger.

The web 2.0 tool that I want to do my project on is Blogger. http://www.blogger.com People are able to write things about themselves or whatever they want to put, as well as customize the blog design however they would want it. The pros about this is students are able to be interactive with the web while using it. Also, the teacher can monitor the student's progress throughout a class by checking their blog posts. Although the cons would be that it isn't very safe to use Blogger. If you put any personal information about yourself on a website like Blogger, it could be extremely dangerous, so you have to be cautious while using this tool. Also a disadvantage of Blogger is that some people may not have internet at home, so it's harder for them to use it.

My backup choice is Skype. http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home Skype is used as a way of communication around the world. It's free, so you no longer have to have long distance calling fees. Plus it is also used for education because teachers could have guest speakers over Skype without the hassle of setting up an appointment and everything, so now it's also a much more convenient and affordable way of learning for this generation.

I have an advantage of choosing Blogger as my tool since I'm already familiar with it already. Although, it would be nice to know more information about it later on, like more Pros and Cons and more educational purposes of Blogger. I haven't used Skype before, so that may be more of a challenge. I do know that some of my teachers have used it before to teach us in a lesson.