Edustructional Technology

NOTE: I mention PowerPoint throughout this article not to attack Microsoft or PowerPoint itself.  Rather, it is used as a generic term for most presentation software that presents ideas in a linear fashion (e.g. Prezi, Keynote, etc.) In the midst of searching for an alternative presentation tool for a conference a few weeks ago, a thought suddenly occurred to me: "Maybe we don't need PowerPoint alternatives but alternatives to PowerPoints."  The more I pondered this thought, the more it troubled me.  I remember when studying English in college that a professor was discussing tropes that occur in film which would be totally foreign to any viewer not familiarized with them through her culture.  As an example, he discussed binoculars used on screen.  For instance, when you see an image such as this: You understand that the character is viewing through binoculars.  But, does this really replicate the experience of binoculars?  No!  When you look t...