I thought it was interesting and odd that yesterday's #edchat focused on PowerPoint and its alternatives. I shared a resource or two I've used about presentations in general such as Steal this Presentation! , but it was hard for me to get too passionate about such a tool-centric topic.

I thought, well, #edchat always sends out polls for tweeters to vote on their most desired topic, so I guess enough folks wanted to talk about it.

What emerged in the conversation was the blatantly obvious, "Don't do this with PPT" and the realization that it wasn't PowerPoint itself that was the issue, but rather the skills of the presenter and the ways in which the tool was used.

At least one person shared my thoughts on the topic choice:

And I feel like Mike nailed it with his suggestion of a topic that would capture my full attention:

I love #edchat and similar educational chats that have emerged. But we talk too much about tools and not enough about teaching and learning. I've heard principals proclaim that PowerPoints were revolutionizing literacy blocks because teachers were using them to keep links handy and outline "to-dos" for kids and lesson agendas.

That's a nice organizational strategy, for the teacher. But to laud it as some sort of example of technology integration that has a real impact on learning? Nah.

Off to work on a Keynote.