APPEd Review Round Up for September – Alternative Presentation Apps

Rubric-Assessed Apps That Provide Great Alternatives to PowerPoint and KeyNote

Todd Cherner will be presenting the session “Educational App Integration: Creating Tablet-Enhanced Instruction” at the 2015 Teaching and Learning with the iPad Conference this November. Come join Todd and hundreds of other passionate educators at the original iPad educational conference November 12th – 14th in Raleigh, NC!

School is back in session! That means a new year of presentations for both teachers and students. Presentations can be a highly effective way to communicate information. Let’s make this school year the one that ends the overuse of boring, dusty PowerPoints! At App Ed Review, we have taken the time to pick out four top presentation apps to wow your audiences and put your best foot forward for the new school year.

1. Adobe Voice is a powerful tool for creating engaging presentations quickly. Users first select what kind of presentation they want to make from a variety of different templates, like Teach a Lesson, Show and Tell, Explain Something, Promote and Idea, etc. Next, users record the audio for the first page of their presentation and then add a symbol from the Adobe Voice archives in a system similar to Clip Art, or add their own picture or chart from their tablet. Users continue inputting their audio and pictures, following an outline with tips for page content (Show It, How, Why, Call to Action, etc.) for the particular purpose chosen on the opening screen. Layouts, themes, music, and other content can be changed at any time through the editing process. The final result is an eye-catching, effective video presentation made in minutes. Adobe Voice scored a whopping 9.3 out of 10 on our comprehensive rubric!
2. PopBoardz aids users in creating easy to use, unique presentations for all types of purposes. Users are greeted with a screen of 16 tiles. When a tile is touched and held, pictures, links, and documents can be imported into the presentation from cloud storage or users’ camera roll. Users can rearrange tile to fit their liking and presentation purpose and can also change their PopBoardz logo and background as needed. All PopBoardz presentations can be shared and edited with other users who have downloaded the PopBoardz app for easy distribution and collaboration. With a 9 out of 10 for engagement, PopBoardz scored an 8.8 overall. For instructional ideas and more, click here.
3. Chartcube is changing the way we think about presentations in math and science class. With it, students can input quantitative data directly into the app or import data from a spreadsheet. Chartcube then transforms the numerical data into a variety of charts that students can explore. Plus, students are able to share, collaborate, and make comments about the chart directly in the app. These functionalities breathe new life into making presentations in math and science class. The higher-order thinking skills needed to use this app earned it top scores in the rigor department, and its design and potential to engage students were also areas of strength. To learn more about Chartcube and for ideas about using it in your classroom, click here.
4. Survey Monkey may not be the first type of app you think of when considering presentation apps, but it has all the elements! With Survey Monkey, students can create a survey and then send it out via email or post it to a website to collect data. As the data comes in, Survey Monkey automatically presents the data as both hard data and in graph form, which makes using this app for presentations a breeze. Teachers can design assignments where students create a survey to research a topic and then present their findings in class all by using this app. The areas of rigor, utility, and interactivity scored very well, and some more ways to use it with your students can be found here.

That’s all for this month’s Roundup. If you would like more information about any of the apps mentioned here or that are on the App Ed Review website, please contact us at info@appedreview.org. And remember, don’t just have students post or submit assignments, have them present!