1.5.1. Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007

PowerPoint is a commonly used tool for the development and presentation of slide based presentations in a variety of settings. However, with its flexibility of usefulness comes its inflexibility of a relatively limited base of options for the development of presentations. While it does have the ability to create and display presentations, it is missing most of the other functionality desired for the e-classroom.

Good Features:

• commonly used and widely understood

• a variety of basic functions for development of simple presentations

• a simple interface for the presentation of prepared PowerPoints

Bad Features:

• the slide system is inflexible in overall format

• slides cannot be easily changed on the fly

• no support for networking with other computers to share the presentation in real time

Missing Features:

• teacher-student networking

• effective e-question asking

• attendance tracking

• layering and real time visual modification