( CNN ) -- Lectures , slide shows and notes are often boring , but people are using technology to find entertainment in these unlikely places . Spoof notes of `` Star Wars '' are scribbled into a fun online `` pencast . '' Some use high-tech pens to track presentations . Others share PowerPoints in slide show form online . These technologically spiced-up presentations seem to be getting more attention these days . They 're also creating buzz about what the future of presentations might hold . Consider `` pencasts , '' which are made using the Pulse SmartPen and specially gridded paper , both sold by the California startup Livescribe . The pen writes like an ordinary pen but also has a voice recorder , and it `` notes '' ( so to speak ) which notes were taken at which point in the recording . Some quirky SmartPen presentations come off as comedy sketches . One popular presentation muses about how George Lucas might have come up with the idea for Star Wars . Some university students love the technology because they can record and play back what their professor was saying at an exact point in their notes -- which is especially useful when you ca n't read your own writing . And many professors are all for it , too . `` I feel like this is one of those 'Rear View Mirror ' moments in which a new technology comes into our lives with enormous potential and we just do n't know what to do with it yet , '' blogs Michael Wesch , a cultural anthropology and digital ethnography professor at Kansas State University . `` We think of it in terms of what we know ( pen and paper ) and fail to recognize the potential . '' That potential -- for entertainment and serious uses alike -- can be gleaned from pencasts posted on the Livescribe Web site 's community section , which is about a year old . The pencasts posted there have collectively received more than 1.5 million views . Soon , it will be easier to embed pencasts on other sites , like personal blogs , the company says . Slide shows are further along in popularity . A startup called SlideShare launched in late 2006 with the idea of allowing people to easily share their PowerPoint presentations . Its site had more than 15 million visitors last month , and its 2008 contest for the best presentations showed off the form 's potential . The best are far removed from the dull bullet-point presentations you might have fallen asleep to . Many use dramatic images , striking design and memorable phrases . Former Vice President Al Gore developed his presentation on the planet 's environmental challenges into the Academy Award-winning documentary and best-selling book `` An Inconvenient Truth . '' Last year 's top SlideShare presentation , called `` Thirst , '' highlights the looming water crisis and has nearly 200,000 views . Others are more light-hearted . The No . 2 spot ( with more than 60,000 views ) went to a presentation called `` Foot Notes . '' It shows pictures of the narrator 's feet in various places she 's been ( like on cobblestone corridors in Prague and a dance floor in Chicago ) , interspersed with inspiring quotes related to feet and walking . Finally , for many people , the most dreaded , boring form of communication of all is the lecture . But then , how to explain the popularity of the TED videos ? TED stands for Technology , Entertainment , Design . The conference started in the mid-'80s and has become a networking event of sorts for the world 's best and brightest . Dozens of speakers give presentations of about 20 minutes each -- the perfect duration for a juicy `` media snack . '' TED.com started introducing TEDTalks to the public for free in July 2006 , and by the following year , there were more than a hundred talks dating back to 2002 . Broken down into dozens of themes , today they 're popular fodder for video iPods . In one , the amputee athlete and model Aimee Mullins talks about how her many pairs of artificial legs often beat having a single pair of regular ones -- some make her taller , others are works of art . In another , Jill Tarter , an astronomer and director of the Center for SETI Research , discusses how insanely large the universe is and what a `` waste of space '' it would be if life on Earth were indeed all there is . It 's hard to watch a handful of TED videos and not feel your perspective broadening . That helps explain how , despite the lecture format , TEDTalks has become hugely popular . A few months ago , the videos surpassed the 100 million views mark -- not bad for a bunch of lectures .
Technology injects new life into a dull medium : presentations . SmartPens bring audio and written notes together . Growth in online applications makes slide shows and lectures more interesting . Success of TED lectures means educational content can be popular .