My primary goal as a tech scout is to explore how to expand our current technology to create a more interactive learning experience. While I would like to explore programs such as Adobe Flash and Adobe Captivate, my focus will be on how to use more widespread and usable progams like PowerPoint. I believe there are several tools within PowerPoint to increase the accessibility and interactivity of course materials:

Interwrite Clickers allow quick formative assessment to check student understanding and allow the instructor to match the pace of the course to student understanding.  I have picked up on Cate Shellars work on Clickers and tried to add more pedagogical support for their use.  I have investigated the current research on personal response systems an incorporated these techniques into my Clickers course in KCELT. 

The “Record Narration” function in PowerPoint allows easy generation of video podcasts.

The “Developer” tab in PowerPoint allows incorporation of various multi-media content such as SWF animation or YouTube videos.  In this work, I am trying to find ways to incorportate more typically interactive components like Flash animations as well as on-line videos. 

Action links, hyperlinks, and animation triggers allow students to interact with the PowerPoint, taking formative assessment quizzes and exploring differentiated instruction interactively. Combined with motion paths, PowerPoint appears to be quite capable of creating Flash-like animations without the learning curve necessary to use Adobe programs.

I have purchased the equipment to investigate how to create an Interactive Whiteboard with a Wii remote using Johnny Chung Lee's method.  While I can use the method to manipulate PowerPoint, and hence control the lecture while standing where the students are looking, I have not had success "writing" on the screen.

Given the wide-spread availability and usage of PowerPoint, I think researching and teaching these lesser known methods in PowerPoint will aid our faculty in generating more interactive teaching materials.  I have a brief example of using Hyperlinks to allow a clickable self-quiz of the bones of the wrist. There are additional more concise methods, using triggers, but this method is relatively simple. In the near future, I will add instructions on how to create this effect as well as further PowerPoint examples. Till then, check out http://pptheaven.mvps.org/.  I also intend to teach a class through KCELT entitled "I Didn't Know You Could Do That With PowerPoint" to share some of these techniques. 

A further exploration of mine has been to experiment with making YouTube videos to compliment my lectures.  They can be found at here.  I would like to continue exploring not only the different types of making videos, but also the different pedagogical techniques.  For example, while drawing an image for the camera seems very low-tech, I am finding that students appreciate this technique because they can draw along with me to enhance their understanding.  In light of this, I would like to investigate what methods are best for increasing student engagement, learning, and retention.

A brief report on my activities in Tech Scouts can also be found here.