I really, really, really, really like that when I embed a PowerPoint using Google Docs into Blackboard for a class, changes that I make because of the work with the students can be done so seamlessly….
Tonight, I started with my PowerPoint expecting to need to modify it. I planned for a great deal of material with the class and wasn’t sure if we could get through all of it in the time we had. We didn’t get through it, so I needed to modify the PowerPoint that I put on Blackboard to reflect those changes. I also took photos of the students during class and wanted to put those up as well.
With Google Docs, I didn’t have to pull down the “old” PowerPoint slides from Blackboard, and then upload the “new’ slide set back to Blackboard. I just went to Google Docs and modified it and the modfied set is instantly available to students on Blackboard. All they need to do is reload/refresh the page….brilliant!
What would be even more brilliant is if I could embed this PowerPoint here for you to see……but again, wordpress.com still gives me troubles…..
However, tonight I discovered another layer in the settings of Google Docs that asks for blog information. I’ve put in my settings for this blog…let’s see if the embedding works now…
No…still a no go…..I really need to move this blog to blogger…My “Google” nephew (he works for Google) also recommended slideshare.net as an option…..
Coincidentally, I just started a new blog post called “The Power of Embedding” in order to talk about the convenience of using embedded media. The main point of the post is that you change the original in one location and that change is immediately available everywhere that the document has been embedded. You’ve just found another compelling example of this.
At the Rich Media Project next Thursday, let’s take a look at your blog and see if we can figure out why you can’t embed the PPT document. I can embed a variety of elements in my iTeach blog, which is a WordPress blog. It’s not hosted at Wordprress, however–it’s hosted on one of CDE’s servers. I doubt that that makes any difference, though.