Getting the (Power)Point Across

I think one thing that gets misunderstood often is the value of PowerPoint in the classroom.  I think that too often PowerPoint is used in a way that does not play to its potential and, in turn, it is viewed as the problem - when the problem is actually the presenter.  Here is a link to great presentation that was created to help focus on the 5 things that make PowerPoint presentations suffer (you can tell by the name that there is some humor involved). You Suck at PowerPoint!

Have you heard of YouTube?  Is that even a question?  Well...Slideshare.net is the YouTube of PowerPoint presentations.  It is the largest online resource to share and download presentations.  You can search for any topic and get great ideas for content and find related materials for your curriculum.  Try it out - it is a great starting point for putting together a great slideshow.  It is also a great way to share your presentations with other teachers or students.  You can view any presentations without restrictions, and if you want to upload your own, you just need to sign up for a free account.

Continuing on the idea of making presentations more visual is theNounProject.com.  The Noun Project is a website that is devoted to increase visual language by creating simple individual icons that represent specific words.  The icons are all very simple and follow the same aesthetic, and you can easily browse the library by topic.  Once you select an icon you can easily download a high-resolution copy of it for future use in presentations.