SlideShare

I'm glad I didn't post this earlier today.  I was suffering from technology fatigue having discovered that no matter what I did, the link to Survey Monkey that I included in my last post just wouldn't work.  And still doesn't. I apologise to those itching to have a say on the use of QR codes as a promotional tool. I'm sure you exist in your thousands.  Admittedly the survey consisted of only 4 questions, so not exactly a reliable starting point from which to build our marketing strategy…

After spending some time quietly banging my head against my wrist rest (asbestos rumours and a general disapproval of violence at work make the wall a no-go area for such activities), I spent some time investigating SlideShare.  At first I felt pretty frustrated, concluding that it’s a bit like Wikipedia in slide format; lots of information from various sources and of questionable reliability.  I found it difficult to find something relevant, and being confronted with page upon page of results always puts me off. Especially when they feature presentations such as 'Free Ipad - Legit' and 'Herbal Viagra Guy Almighty'.  However, I work in a library.  I am not intimidated by vast oceans of information.  I took a deep breath, stopped cursing Survey Monkey (yes, there was still a slight preoccupation going on with that) gave my search terms some thought and rediscovered filters.  Aaaah.  I limited my search by language, date, user type (pro) and file type.  The results were somewhat more satisfactory and I was able to see how useful SlideShare can be for sharing information and teaching materials, promoting work and getting ideas. 

I still have concerns, however, about the authenticity of some of the information and would therefore suggest a cautionary approach when recommending it to students, particularly those carrying out research related to drug prescriptions and medical procedures.  This can be said about many sources of information though - the aforementioned Wikipedia and YouTube to name only a couple.  As long as we can get the 'never, ever, EVER cite Wikipedia as a source of information in your assignments' message across, and as long as users know they must always check the source,  then these websites can be a great way to gather information.  For example, the ’Search smarter, Search faster’ video created by the University of Sydney provides an excellent illustration of how YouTube can be exploited as a learning tool:

No time to Cha Cha, Mister Dinosaur, I’m off to make a start on Thing 17.