New Blogging Statistics

Yesterday, I came across an intereting blog. It's called blogworldexpo.com. They posted some interesting statistics about the size of the "blogosphere" as of 2009.

Here's are my top three picks of interesting statistics. I especially take note of the third point, as our students will soon be entering the workplace.

1. Over 12 million American adults currently maintain a blog.
2. Over 57 million Americans read blogs.
3. 89% of companies surveyed say they think blogs will be more important in the next five years.

I also did a bit of research about who exactly is the current day blogger, and found some interesting information about "The State of the Blogosphere 2009". This report indicates that the majority of adult bloggers are highly educated and earn above average income.

Here's a pie graph to illustrate the education levels of bloggers who were surveyed.

Since I started my own blog, I have really come to appreciate the vast amount of information that blogs have to offer, and the endless topics for blog readers to choose. It's a fascinating aspect of our culture.

Free Images!

Shutterstock is a webiste that has a large collection of royalty free images. This is a great source for enhancing PowerPoint presentations.

2009's Best Presentations on SlideShare.net

Check out the winning presenations for 2009.

Here's the presentation that took second prize.

Sheltering Wings

View more presentations from Sarah Cullem.

Easily Share Presentations and Documents Online

SlideShare.net is a host side for sharing presentations and documents. It supports a number of different formats (listed below), making it a versatile tool for uploading various types of presentations and documents.

Supported Formats
Presentations: pdf, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, pot, potx (Powerpoint); odp (OpenOffice); key, zip (Apple Keynote).
Documents: pdf, doc, docx, rtf, xls (MSOffice); odt, ods(OpenOffice); Apple iWork Pages.

The slideshow may be embedded into a blog or website. The example below is called "Shift Happens", and was originally created by Karl Fisch. Since then, different versions have been created utilizing music and more graphics, and posted on YouTube. Have a look and compare presentations!

SlideShare.net embedded slideshow:

Shift Happens

View more presentations from Jeff Brenman.

YouTube embedded slideshow as a flash video - Version "Did You Know 2.0"

Using PowerPoint in Mathematics

Targeted Implemenatation and Planning Supports For Revised Mathematics (TIPS4RM) provides resources for entire courses ranging from Grade 7 to Grade 12. Included in these resources are well-made PowerPoint presentations for various mathematical concepts.

I have used a number of the PowerPoint presenations for Grade 9 Applied, and have found them to be an excellent tool for consolidation of concepts. The students also enjoy the animations and the visual aids are very effective.

Enjoy!

Marcia

PowerPoint in the Classroom

The current topic of study is presentation software. Of course, this includes PowerPoint...

PowerPoint is a tool that can be extremely effective, but it does have its limits. On more than one occasion, I have fallen victim to the misuse of PowerPoint presentations with far too much written and graphical information. If the goal is to provide a full account of material covered in a lecture, I personally would prefer access to a word document, rather than a lengthy slide presentation.

I think PowerPoint is best used to accompany a presentation as a visual and/or audio aid, opposed to a thorough document that covers all the information. Using minimal text is a good strategy to focus the audience without distracting them from the presentation points. If someone were to print out the slides alone, they would be missing the "meat and potatoes" of the presentation, however those who are present may find it helpful to have a print out of the slides to follow along and add notes.

I also think that sometimes detail can be a good, as long as it is meaningful and displayed in an effective way. For example, in Math I have found that the animation options provide a very effective way to show full Math solutions step-by-step. By displaying each step of the solution individually, I can explain the solution slowly and carefully, while students anticipate the next step before it is displayed.

Searching the Sea of Visual Technology Resources

There are so many great digital imagery resources for the classroom available online! I have listed some useful sites that may serve as a starting point for those who are interested in learning about the different ways of incorporating visual technology into their lessons.

Visual Technology Resources

Digital Storytelling Resources
http://voicethread.com/
http://www.bitstripsforschools.com/

Educational Video Resources
http://www.teachertube.com/
http://www.dimensions-math.org/Dim_E.htm
http://www.youtube.com

Photograph Sharing
http://www.flickr.com/
http://picasa.google.ca/mac/

Slide Show Creation
http://www.faststone.org/
http://www.slide.com/

Time-lapse Video Creation
http://www.playingwithtime.org/

Creative Photograph Applications
http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php

Digital Camera Learning Centre
http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=38/13915&pq-locale=en_US

Other Resources for Creation and Sharing of Digital Photographs and Videos
http://www.wordle.net/
http://www.jingproject.com/
http://www.awesomehighlighter.com/
http://pbworks.com/

Photo and Image Resources
http://images.google.com
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/index.cfm
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic98.htm
http://www.kidsclick.org/psearch.html
http://www.awesomeclipartforeducators.com

Marcia