I am as surprised as you are............

I am not sure what is going in the tiny little design mind I have. it wasn't more than a few weeks ago that I was talking about how I was using powerpoint again. I have justified that to myself as a very necessary evil, as part of teaching.today I had a productive 2 hour meeting concerning a website design project that I have been working on for a while. I left the meeting having agreed to create a splash/entry page probably using flash, though I will have a think about that.

a few years ago I would have refused to even consider such a thing!
all the usability studies suggest that these pages detract even alienate visitors but I am think perhaps not now, with better internet connections and faster processors perhaps now is the time to revisit preconceived ideas and do it properly, that or I have just gone a little mad!

I am not that sure either >> (.ppt)

after a comment from davidthedesigner to do with the use of powerpoint. I did indeed follow a big route round russelldavies land. so many good things to see and learn, agree with disagree with but well worth checking. well worth checking his stuff on youtube too.
any way this led me on to dave funkypancake and this powerpoint presentation that in its self is a bit special and uses the presentation programme in its real sense. it is a shame that so many of the presentations I have watched, help make, & a long time ago made my self weren't as entertaining. but as to future use of the thing I am not that sure either.

powerpoint >> I have started using it again

I expect anyone who knows me will be very surprised that I have started using powerpoint as both something to teach as well as a tool for teaching (not that much).
for the last 3 or 4 years I have been getting new year 7 pupils to create presentations (& e-portfolio's) using dreamweaver and flash. this year however I went back to what I was doing a few years ago and to my surprise the level of pupil application knowledge was more limited than previous years.
I think that it is from using social networking sites like myspace, bebo, and the like as very little user input is required (templates are the norm). very few pupils even consider layout except if there is a wizard for them. I don't have a big problem with these sites as if nothing else the have broken down the fear factor of computer use with the under 18's.
going back to powerpoint has actually made pupils consider how to construct/design a good presentation as well as making sure that content is the most important thing of all.

poor content can never be dressed up to produce anything worthwhile what ever software application you use. one thing hasn't changed I really have a problem with custom animation I hate it, it doesn't make things better!