Wednesday, May 12, 2010

An alternative to narrated Powerpoints

I'm trying something new. I've recorded a lecture for my students in SecondLife. Well, first a little context: for the past year, I've been adding some UDL (Universal Design Learning) components to my grammar class to help my students, some of whom need more time to process the lectures and material. I started creating narrated Powerpoint lectures using Elluminate in the fall. Mainly, I chose Elluminate because I don't have an Articulate license. Elluminate is OK but a bit unwieldy...Not a pretty presentation, not full-screen, and many students have trouble opening the files at home because they require Java. That's not a difficult fix, but try explaining to someone with minimal computer experience that they need to download "Java" when they get home. Anyway...I recently had another idea. Check out this video I shot in SecondLife on Evergreen Island. It's actually the second of three: in the first, I give a (yes!) Powerpoint lecture in SecondLife, then move over here to the demonstration area to give some examples, then in the third movie, go over to a screen with an online quiz for practice. So I move through the early steps of presentation: introduce, demonstrate, guided practice.

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