Thing 18 - Online Presentation Tools

In Thing 11 we talked about how, in one school in Massachusetts anyway, that Weebly had replaced PowerPoint as the presentation tool of choice for class projects in one science class. One of the best things about Web 2.0 is that there are a myriad of tools that allow the knowledge holder to share that knowledge. It becomes a function of what the knowledge holder is comfortable with using. Sometimes that's PowerPoint, sometimes Word or something else. In your classroom it might be a whiteboard, SmartBoard, VHS tape, DVD or a projector on the wall.

In Thing 18 we are dealing with online presentation tools in the more traditional, PowerPoint sense.

For this Thing we will talk about one that translates existing PowerPoint presentations to web delivered content. One that allows for online creation of a more traditional presentation and one that seeks to redefine what a presentation is.

Slideshare, Faculte and Voicethread

Slideshare and Faculte are for presentations what YouTube is for videos -- a place where you can post your work and benefit from what is shared by others.

Slideshare is used primarily for posting existing PowerPoint presentations to the Internet. After creating a free account, upload the presentation and get a unique URL so others can view it online. Just like You Tube, you can grab and copy the code and embed the slide show into your blog. One of the best features of Slideshare is being able to search and view the work of others. There are some great presentations available there that can be used as is or to generate ideas for your own. Like YouTube, you can rate and comment on the presentations.

Faculte is an online creation tool that empowers users to create a presentation complete with voice-overs, transitions and annotations.

VoiceThread is different in that it allows viewers to post audio comments on the presentations and that is a great way to keep the discussion going.

Slideshare VoiceThread and Faculte presentations can be downloaded or embedded onto other sites, such as blogs. Here's a Slideshare embedded presentation that you can click through using the arrows at the bottom (notice its great use of graphics, color, and text -- no boring bulleted lists in this one!)

Shift Happens

View more presentations from Daemon Digital.

Prezi
Prezi is different. Prezi seeks to redefine what a presentation (prezi) is. Where traditional presentations are mainly obviously linear affairs Prezi allows users to create exciting animated presentations in one of the most brilliantly accessible and intuitive user interfaces we have seen in a long time.

Here is one created in about 20 minutes for a reading group in Miller-Driscoll. The students had come up with the data on the characters, in this case a Pinky and Rex book, and it was turned into a Prezi by one of us.

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To complete Thing 18 you must
A. Explore Slideshare, Faculte and Prezi.
B. Find or Create and embed a presentation into your blog
B. Reflect on Thing 18 on your blog

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A. Explore
Go to Slideshare or Faculte and search for presentations on subjects of your choice. If you are a PowerPoint (or other presentation software) user, you may want to create an account and upload your own presentation. Go to Prezi.com and create your own Prezi.

B. Embed
Find or create a presentation to share on your blog (of any content). Look for the embed code -- remember when you embedded the video? Same thing. If you need to review how to embed, see Thing 10. For you overachievers, try uploading a PowerPoint and embedding a presentation of your own into your blog. You will need a Slide Share account, but as you may have guessed, they are FREE! Go for it! Have fun!

C. Reflect - blog prompts for Thing 18
What did you like about the presentation you embedded? How might these tools be useful in the classroom? Out of the classroom?