Weekly Learning Technology Digest... 5

Image from Camera Eye Photography under
a CC BY 2.0 license 

Friday and time for my weekly learning technology digest again.  Here's my selection of tasty morsels from the web this week, all of which might help spark some creative ideas to enhance your learning / teaching:

• PowerPoint into Prezi - this first link caught my eye because I've been struggling to get my head around Prezi for a while.  My PowerPoints tend to be made up primarily of images and very few words... and I'm happy with them being a backdrop for a presentation so struggled to see what Prezi could offer other than seasickness!  I went to a workshop this week on using Prezi and one of the things I found out was that you can import your PowerPoint slides into Prezi - which is excellent if you want to start your ideas in a familiar environment, choosing pictures, thinking about order etc and then move into Prezi to give it a bit more of a dynamic feel as you reveal concepts / show layers of ideas.
• Using Google Docs to Create Digital Kits for Student Projects - a great tip and a nice idea for kick starting a project with a 'digital kit'.  I especially liked the handy pointer about the ease of using Creative Commons licensed images from within a Google doc (i.e. if you insert a picture using a Google search into a Google doc, it only gives you images which are licensed for reuse and modification).  Excellent stuff.
• How can infographics produce better e-learning content? - an article from the excellent Rapid E-Learning blog this not only explains why you might consider using infographics in education, but also points you towards a fair few great resources that'll further fire your imagination and get you started.  Plus, I love a good infographic!
• Videos to help you rethink learning, education and school - this post came from Garr Reynolds (who wrote Presentation Zen and is an expert on presentation design) and has a really great selection of videos to dip into.  While you may not necessarily agree with all of them, they get you thinking about the processes of learning... and that's really healthy.

Another couple of things to note this week: firstly, that Blackboard acquired Moodlerooms and NetSpot - a move that surprised many but is an indicator that the learning management system market is heading towards change... and secondly, we've set ourselves up a Google+ page.  For bits of news, views, links, resources, updates and discussion... that's where you can find us!  Be sure to follow us to stay in touch.

As ever, if there's anything else we should have been looking out for this week and missed, do leave us a comment below!

Sarah