Beside the PointUseful Alternatives to PowerPoint for Instruction Librarians

WILUMay 10, 2013

Brad SietzLOEX, Eastern Michigan University

Agenda

Where are we?

How and why did we get here?

Where are we (kind of) going and what tools can take us there?

Questions

Quick Survey

How many attendees have access to MS Office at their job?

How many attendees utilize: Google Drive (i.e., Docs) Prezi Some other online presentation tool?

Use of tools at conferences

Conference Google Docs Prezi PPT

LOEX 2012 0 1 41

2011 0 2 29

2010 3 4 28

WILU 2012 1 1 29

2011 1 3 15

2010 No website

LOTW 2012 3* 8 24

2010 3^ 3 25

* One of these is a LibGuide, a research guide site ; ^ Two are LibGuides

A few presentations were posted to SlideShare, a web site for sharing slide presentations, typically PowerPoint, so they were counted as such.

Twenty years of dominance

PowerPoint still is the clear leader Not typical in technology

▪ Browsers▪ Computers▪ Phones▪ Search (Google getting there?)

Replaced the standard / became the standard

Wow, zoom, PowerPoint!

Here it comes From over here With lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots ,

and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots , and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots , and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of text

And great sound! With well-worn clip art

Getting beyond PowerPoint Free Rise of the “cloud” / “Web 2.0”

Collaboration Be different More modern look & feel

Streamlined Picture-based

New platforms & new company ecosystems Mobile/tablets

Google Docs

Apps within Google Drive Similar to MS Office suite ; integrates

with it Cloud-based

Allows offline syncing Mobile-friendly

Simple to… Acquire / setup Use

Real-time collaboration

Zoho Docs

“Simple Online Document Management” Similar to MS Office suite ; integrates

with it Cloud-based

No offline product, but can use PPT Similar functionality and look & feel

to Google DocsFor those who like to be different

So…let’s see ‘em!

Nothing (really) to see here

Prezi

Started in 2009 Single-canvas model Emphasis on movement / flow Co-edit with another person Free-version is solely cloud-based

Prezi – potential issues

Bad “PowerPoint” habits come back Spinning (causes ‘vertigo’) Movement for its own sake Excessive words / graphics Too much small text

Projeqt

Useful to integrate live streams (e.g., Twitter) or other sites (e.g., Pinterest, FourSquare) directly into presentation Like other tools (from PPT to Prezi) you

can also include/embed videos Web-based, so sites like Google Maps

will work directly

SlideRocket

It’s been acquired

PowerPoint 2013 / 365

All the past features, plus the new style

The new Office 2013 and 365 do NOT run on Windows XP and Vista (i.e., you need 7 or 8) or Mac OS X 10.6 or later

▪ This would preclude my EMU computer, for instance

So what tool to use?

Access to internet is not guaranteed Even if access is, quality is not

Browsers do not always place nice Firefox struggled with Prezi at WILU

Information being conveyed is often linear

Conferences – keep it local

Non-conference: Situations

Budget Equipment (new enough?) How file will be accessed by user Solo vs. group project Functionality needed Background of individual Temperament of individual

Of course…Nothing at all

Maybe just a handout with key points/agenda and/or space for notes

Questions?

bsietz@emich.edu