Internet? What internet?

here's a video that aired in 1994 - a quick reminder that the 'net wasn't always as ubiquitous as it is now.

When this aired the World Wide Web was only 2 years old!

Online Presentation tools - waaaay beyond Powerpoint!

I teach Powerpoint as part of Mercer University's CSC125 class, and have studied presenting for a number of years as part of my teaching in various locales and situations.

I find it fascinating how the technology has changed over the years. granted, I'm a bit of a maverick - I selected Astound to use for presenting way back in 1998 because it was cross-platform and way ahead of Powerpoint in terms of animation and video playback. I've used one of the tools mentioned below for a couple of years, and am planning on checking out the other soon.

Both use the "freemium" model - accounts are free for basic functionality, and advanced features are available for a subscription.

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Slideshare.net allows you to upload presentation files in several formats - Powerpoint, of course, but also Keynote. Others can easily view them and navigate through the presentation in a web browser. The coolest feature, though, is the "Screencast" - where you upload the presention into Slideshare.net, upload an mp3 file to a web-enabled location, and then use an intuitive interface to link the two together.

Here's an example of quickie presentation I threw together for my Mercer class - I was out sick, but needed to go ahead and cover the material.

Busses And Pointers

View more webinars from Tom Rule.

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PREZI.com is something I just found this week. It allows easy creation of ZOOMING presentations, which are visually interesting (as long as they are designed well!).

One of the creators of Prezi has one called Why You Should move Beyond Slides that clearly demonstrated the capabilities and advantages. It is worth checking out.

Barnes & Noble Nook vs Apple's iPad - a review

I was in Barnes & Noble the other day and was visually accosted by a huge Nook display just inside the door. I had never had an eBook in my hands, so I walked over out of curiosity.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own an eBook nor an iPad, so this opinion is based on some out-of-curiosity online research plus about 5 minutes with an iPad and a Nook. One of my students has a kindle, and I've looked at that as well.

One of things things that struck me about the iPad was the glare from the lights overhead. Although I admire the ipad's funcionality and the elegance of the design, the glare factor on the screen makes it much less useful for reading. The frustration factor would have been exceedingly high trying to read a book on an iPad, especially in sunlight.

The Nook was a welcome contrast in this department [pun intended, of course!]. It's matte screen, although smaller in size, was much more pleasant to use in a variety of lighting situations. I was fairly impressed - plus the fact that it accepts SD cards for additional memory, has software so you can access your purchases on a variety of platforms (Macs, Windows, iPhones, Android.....), and the battery is USER-REPLACEABLE makes this reader very attractive.

According to B&N the number of titles available for the Nook is greater than for the Kindle or the iPhone by a significant factor. Granted, I have no way to check that out, but given that B&N has moved heavily into the education market (i.e. TEXTBOOKS) it's probably true.

You can also "lend" a title to another Nook user, which is pretty cool - and one model is equipped with both 802.11 [wireless] and 3g [cell phone] radios.

They come out with a color version November 19, 2010. That's one tech item the MaconMacGuy is anxious to check it out.