[1]
A mix of web apps that can help you make presentations that are fun, eye catching, and engaging (great for students too)!
In this month’s free online workshop [2], we’re learning about the wonderful variety of free digital presentation tools available on the Internet today, and ways we might use them in our classroom. For the last assignment, I want to let participants select from a list of applications we haven’t tried yet. I’ve been searching out new ones, as well as revisiting tools I’ve used before or known about, and I’ve listed a handful here.
This interactive image is an example of a Glogster “poster” I tossed together in about 25 minutes, without any previous knowledge of using the tool. Note the different functionality for video and images - click an image to see it zoom and straighten for a better view, and the videos clips actually play!
I have no doubt that many educators might enjoy some of these tools, so I am sharing them here, and asking for readers feedback on these and other apps. Not only can tools like these offer a fun approach to presenting educational content, they can also be used by students for assignments and creating their own digital content.
- SlideShare [3]: A very popular tool for sharing Powerpoint presentations and more, online, or embed them in your blog or website.
- ZohoShow [4]: Kind of similar to Powerpoint, but free, and online.
- Glogster [5]: This link [6] will take you right to Glogster’s Basic (free) plan for Educators.
- Fotobabble [7]: Create talking photos with Fotobabble! I haven’t tried this yet, but I here’s [8] an example of a Fotobabble talking photo by”Becky4477″ - looks like a simple tool for adding as voice-over to pictures (they have a free iPhone app [9] too).
- Prezi [10]: With Prezi, you create graphical presentations that you can easily zoom in and out of, to “get the big picture”, or “drill into the details”.
- Voki [11]: The idea behind Voki is to use a talking avatar to make your presentation. Click here [12] to read a post about Voki that includes a video demonstration of the creation of a Voki avatar.
- Vuvox [13]: I had a lot of fun creating this music video [14] with the help of Vuvox last year, and selected it as the first app we covered in the workshop. You can add text, pics, and embedded “hot links”, over a bed of music, to make your scrolling presentation. [SADLY, VUVOX IS NO MORE … THEY SHUT DOWN SERVICES IN LATE 2013 - Ed.]
- OneTrueMedia [15]: We took this one for a try this week - definitely easier to use than Vuvox (but I was also a little dissapointed by some of the limitations in the free version).
If there are other free digital presentation tools that you like to use, please comment [16] and let us know about them!
Related Posts (if the above topic is of interest, you might want to check these out):
3 Quick Lesson Plan Ideas That Utilize Technology [17]
2 Great Online Presentation Tools for E-Learning [18]
Voki Is A Fun, Free Animated Avatar Application That’s Easy To Use In The Classroom [12]
Related Posts
[19]Create Rich Digital Learning Content in Minutes With Blendspace [19]- [20]Enhance Project-Based Learning with These 10 Powerful Tools [20]
[21]Teacher’s recommendations for academic uses of 5 fun free presentation tools [21]- [22]Tackk - An Easy Free Tool for Creating Digital Assignments, Blended or Flipped Content [22]
About Kelly Walsh [23]
Kelly Walsh is Chief Information Officer at The College of Westchester, in White Plains, NY, where he also teaches. In 2009, Walsh founded EmergingEdTech.com. As an education and instructional technology advocate, he frequently delivers presentations on a variety of related topics at schools and conferences across the U.S. Walsh is also an author, and online educator, regularly running Flipped Class Workshops [24] online. His eBook, the Flipped Classroom Workshop-in-a-Book is available here [25]. Kelly also writes, records, and performs original music ... stop by kwalshmusic.com [26] and have a listen!
[Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are my own, or those of other writers, and not those of my employer. - K. Walsh]