Steve Jobs: "People who know what they’re talking about don’t need PowerPoint"

This is a re-blog from Garr Reynolds "Presentation Zen."  As usual, Garr manages to hit the nail directly.  I remember a long time ago having a presenter come into my library with a Power Point.  He was ready to present, but the flash drive did not work for him.  He had to set the Power Point aside.  Later, the faculty told me that he did better with out it.  Power Point is a great tool, but you don't need it every time.

PowerPoint design

Niall Ferguson: The 6 killer apps of prosperity | Video on TED.com

A great resource for economics, history, and global studies: Over the past few centuries, Western cultures have been very good at creating general prosperity for themselves. Historian Niall Ferguson asks: Why the West, and less so the rest? He suggests half a dozen big ideas from Western culture -- call them the 6 killer apps -- that promote wealth, stability and innovation. And in this new century, he says, these apps are all shareable.

Interesting job

What I like best about this video is it's ability to tell a digital story, even if a person doesn't understand the language.

Fjellsikrerne from Sindre TL on Vimeo.

Little League Sign

This sign is from Daniel Pink's blog Emotionally Intelligent Signage.  It certainly does convey the message:

History and the Doolittle Raid

Magic washing machine

Not only is this an excellent presentation, the author also makes a great argument of the importance of the washing machine as an invention:

How to tell a digital story

Here is an excellent example of a digital story.  Is there anything left out?   From Hiking in Finland by Hendrik Morkel.


The Longest Way 1.0 - one year walk/beard grow time lapse from Christoph Rehage on Vimeo.

Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability

This is another excellent presentation from TED.  Well worth watching.

How to make a tabbed notebook using Power Point

Tom Kuhlmann's Rapid E-Learning Blog is one of my favorite resources for ideas. Today he provides a template for creating a neat tabbed notebook using a PowerPoint template:

How Complexity Leads to Simplicity

I have often used this (now-infamous) Power Point slide on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan as an example of poor design and poor presentation.  Now ecologist Eric Berlow in a TED presentation shows how extrememly complex systems provide more information that can lead to a better, simpler solutions. He uses the Afghanistan slide to break it down to elementary points:

Student video

Check out this student created video using jaycut.com and a digital camera:

Using Power Point as a visual aid

Here's a great piece from Garr Reynolds' Presentation web site. He does an excellent analysis of how to use Power Point as a supplement to a presentation.
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2010/10/talking-clearly-visually-about-plastic-pollution.html

Washington Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Here are a couple of outstanding video presentations on the author Washington Irving. The first is by a high school student. Notice how she uses the medium of video well with good transitions. The only thing she could have done better is to make the text easier to read by making it more in contrast to the background. The second is a cool animation of the author reading the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Mountain Time Lapse

One of my favorite blogs is Hiking in Finland, which is about ultralight hiking in the Nordic countries. What I particularly like about the site is the way they use photography to tell their stories. For example here is a fantastic time lapse video of a mountain camping scene. Check it out::

Timescapes Timelapse: Mountain Light from http://vimeo.com/timescapes on Vimeo.

Photo of the Day from Fotopedia

Fotopedia is an ency​clopedia of images, many of which can be used under a Creative Commons license. http://www.fotopedia.com/

Photo of the day on Fotopedia

The Powerpoint

Here is another example of how not to use Powerpoint.  Unfortunately, it comes from our military.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/world/27powerpoint.html?emc=eta1