Frank Robson teaches Language Arts and Social Sciences and coordinates the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program at the Mountain Shadows Middle School in Rohnert, California. Recently Frank led the effort to equip the school’s computer lab with OfficeFX Presenter.

At Mountain Shadows, Presenter is used in a variety of ways including research projects, science fair projects, math projects, and even to drive graphics at the school’s narrowcast television channel.

Frank cites the following advantages of Presenter as a teaching tool in new media.

• Presenter has a unique ability to mix different media types. Today’s students are in the “remix” generation. Their music is a good case in point. It is often a “mash up” of different songs, beats, and even genres. Presenter allows them to work with visual media in the same way. They can combine interactive 3D content with video, Flash, audio, as well as more traditional 2D content like text, charts, and images.
• The PowerPoint based workflow makes learning the product easy. Most students interested in digital media have experience with PowerPoint so they are able to use Presenter right away.
• Because it’s a real time system, making changes is simple. You get the results instantly. This encourages experimentation – always a plus in education.
• Results can be published in a variety of ways for easy inclusion in other digital media projects.
• Presenter is extensible and deep. As students gain experience with more advanced digital media creation (Flash, video, and even 3D modeling and animation) Presenter continues to provide them with a platform for integrating their work.
• As an end goal – it represents a valuable skill and trade. Those who continue through the entire learning cycle and use the OfficeFX Authoring Toolkit to create custom FXThemes and animated 3D logos gain a highly marketable set of skills.
• The aggressive educational pricing program offered by Instant Effects allowed all our media students to take advantage of what Presenter has to teach them.

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