Old tools used in a new way. part 1

PDFs and PowerPoint

Many of the tools that are being used for e-learning have not been around all that long but there are two tools that have been around for awhile and are being use quite effectively in e-learning events, PDFs and PowerPoint.

The Internet is evolving from Web 1.0, a read only format to Web 2.0 a read/write format. Today people are doing more then just reading content on the web, they are also sharing their content with others by uploading it to the internet. In the past, sharing content with others was time consuming and expensive. The software used to create content on the web was expensive and hard to use, but today there are many tools, for creating content on the web, that are both free and easy to use.

PDF (Portable Document Format) has been around for awhile. Adobe Acrobat 1.0 came out in 1993. While the PDF reader was free, the software for creating PDFs was not. In 2008 the International Organization for Standards (ISO) established the ISO 32000-1:2008 PDF open standard. This has opened the door for the average computer user to create and share content through PDFs with little or not cost involved.

There are two unique aspects of PDFs. The first is that content can be created across software and platform. This means that one does not have to have the software or hardware that created the content to view the content; you do not have to have MS-Word to view PDFs that were created using MS-Ward. I use a desktop publish program call Page Plus. Many people do not have this software program let alone ever hear of it. But I like it and have been using it since version 1.0. Originally this software was designed to create content for hard copy print but has now evolved to include digital content. With PDFs I can digitally share content made using this program with people who do not have this software.

The Second unique aspect of PDFs is that formatting stays the same. This is because the PDFs file is basically an image of the original file. The person viewing the files see it exactly as is was created. The only requirement is that the person viewing the file has a PDF reader. Saving a PDF file is as easy as saving a regular file.

PDFs are becoming a powerful item in the toolbox of e-learning designers. Compatibility, portability and ease of use is making this old tool a valuable tool in e-learning application today. Next we will look at PowerPoint type programs and their use in e-learning.