Why Was "So God Made a Farmer" So Powerful?

Earlier this week, we looked at a Super Bowl commercial that probably missed the mark. Today's subject is one that tugged at our heartstrings, and turned out to be the most talked-about commercial of the day. The voice is unmistakeable...Paul Harvey. The message is unforgettable.

So God made a farmer...




On Nancy Duarte's blog, Paula Tesch authors a post arguing this ad was really a "presentation in disguise." The commercial includes no special effects. Instead, we hear a strong voice telling a great story, backed with great pictures.

I invite you to read the post entitled "The Most Talked About Super Bowl Commercial Was a Presentation in Disguise."

What makes a presentation powerful? One of my favorite TED Talks was given by Nancy Duarte. She outlines what makes a presentation compelling. She goes on to use Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech as an example. Here is that TED Talk:



Now that you have heard "So God make a farmer," what made it powerful for you?

Most Popular Posts

Blogger has added a "stats" tab. It has evidently been there since May, but I just noticed it a couple of weeks ago. One of the neat features is the ability to see which posts have the most hits. Here are the top three posts:

1. Test Item Analysis Calculator (from June 10, 2010) What if students could sit down computers, take a test, and have the computer return to the teacher a spreadsheet containing the student names and their answers. Furthermore, each answer is graded correct or incorrect, an average calculated for the student, and item analysis performed on each question. That what this post is all about. If this is something that your school would like to pilot, email me and let's talk. This post has received 498 hits.
2. Understanding Facebook Privacy Settings (from July 6, 2010) While we love to communicate through Facebook, we are understandably concerned about our personal information falling into the hands of strangers who have questionable motives. This post received 171 hits.
3. 20+ Ways to use the Flip Video in the Classroom (from August 21, 2010) This post explores exactly what the title says. It has received 139 hits.

Most Popular Posts

Blogger has added a "stats" tab. It has evidently been there since May, but I just noticed it a couple of weeks ago. One of the neat features is the ability to see which posts have the most hits. Here are the top three posts:

1. Test Item Analysis Calculator (from June 10, 2010) What if students could sit down computers, take a test, and have the computer return to the teacher a spreadsheet containing the student names and their answers. Furthermore, each answer is graded correct or incorrect, an average calculated for the student, and item analysis performed on each question. That what this post is all about. If this is something that your school would like to pilot, email me and let's talk. This post has received 508 hits.
2. Understanding Facebook Privacy Settings (from July 6, 2010) While we love to communicate through Facebook, we are understandably concerned about our personal information falling into the hands of strangers who have questionable motives. This post received 173 hits.
3. 20+ Ways to use the Flip Video in the Classroom (from August 21, 2010) This post explores exactly what the title says. It has received 140 hits.

20+ Ways to Use the Flip Video in the Classroom

My last post was devoted to the Flip video. The Free Technology for Teachers blog featured more than 20 ways to use this tool in the classroom. The post is well worth reading. Click here to read it.

The Flip Video

Technology continues to get smaller, more affordable, and better. Such is the case of the Flip Video. I got mine at Wal-Mart for $50.
The Flip is probably the world’s easiest video camera:
Step 1: Turn it on.
Step 2: Push the big red button.
Step 3: There is no Step 3.
It’s that easy.

When you are finished recording, press the big red button again. The “Flip” gets it’s name from the way you download the material to your computer. Slide a button and a USB connection “flips” out from the device. Plug it into a USB port in the computer and store the video file on your computer.

For a sample of what the flip can do, here is a rendition of “God Bless the USA” sung by my friend, David Horton and recorded on my Flip at a high school commencement.

The March 2010 issue of the THE Journal featured an excellent article on the Flip. Click here to read the article.

Anybody have experiences with this product that you would like to share?

Alternatives to YouTube

YouTube has great videos and lots of them. There are other alternatives that teachers may want to explore. This post from Free Technology for Teachers provides over 30 resources.

Introducing Animoto

I read about a site called Animoto.com and gave it a try. If a picture is worth a thousand words, probably the best way to tell you what the site is all about is to show you:



After creating an account (which takes less than a minute), you can create your first video:

1. Upload pictures from your computer or other source (such as flickr). You must have at least 10 pictures.
2. Select the music. Animoto lets you choose the genre and choose from a list of music within that genre.
3. You upload the video.

It takes a little while for the site to put your video together, and you know what they say about a watched pot. So, go and do something else and before you know it, you will have an e-mail telling you it's ready and giving you a link to your video.

The site is free if you are creating short videos (around 30 seconds). To create longer ones costs a fee. You can save your video to your computer. You also have the ability, as we show here, to embed the video in a blog.

The demonstration video I put together, using photos of our dogs, took less than 5 minutes to create. Most of that time involved waiting for the computer to complete the upload of the pictures.

I shared this site with Pattie Thomas, principal at R. L. Young Elementary School, and by the next morning, she had created a video of her own and posted it to her school blog.

If you are looking for a time-saving way to create a short "commercial" presentation, Animoto is a good one.