Teaching, Technology, and Learning

PowerPoint has a feature called "Presenter View" that, not surprisingly, is useful for giving presentations. On PowerPoint 2007 this is an option under the Slide Show menu. Check the "Use Presenter View" box to enable it.

Presenter View expects your computer to be connected to a projector (or external monitor) where the projector is enabled as an extended desktop. This mode doesn't work if the external display mirrors the laptop display. When giving a presentation, the laptop's screen shows a small window of the slide content, navigation controls, and notes. The external or projected screen shows the full slide without the notes or navigation.

This is supposed to be a blog about technology in education and I've gone slightly off topic with my posts on the OQO 02. I still plan to write a more comprehensive review, but to bring this back to education for now, I have been using my OQO to give presentations for some of my classes.

First of all, there is a strange freedom walking into class without having to carry a bag full of gear. Striding into class with just my OQO in one pocket and the VGA adapter in the other, I got some funny looks from my students. Where's his bag? Is he going to just cancel class? Sadly for them, they got a full hour and fifteen minutes of lecture thanks to the OQO 02. In this case I hooked the OQO 02 up to a data projector so the class could see PowerPoint or material in OneNote.

I've read a number of articles and messages denouncing PowerPoint as a teaching tool. They claim that PowerPoint is too passive for the students, the presentation goes too fast, the text is hard to read, and the list goes on. I agree with all of these points.