It's that time of year again and I am back to work and school. For my first blog entry, the assignment was to preview a couple of Web 2.0 presentation tools to evaluate for use in my course project but also for ease of use with and motivation for my young learners. I decided to play around with three different web-based tools. Because I have no experience with these types of programs I primarily chose tools with an included link for a tutorial or demonstration.
280 Slides
The first presentation tool I looked at was 280 Slides because it did have a tutorial. When playing with this, it was easy to use. However, I did not feel that it had any WOW factor. It was pretty straightforward. There were limited graphics and background choices which I did not feel to be very motivating. With this presentation tool, it was very easy to add graphics from the web into the slide show but it did not provide any options for transitioning from slide to slide or any cool text effects.
PreZentit
Based on how easy 280 Slides was to create, I decided to try out PreZentit even though it did not have a tutorial. The fact that it could be used collaboratively with more than one person working on the same project at a time and could be downloaded and shared without the need for an internet connection intrigued me (cooltoolsforschools, 2011). I would say it is a step ahead of 280 Slides. It definitely had more options. The background gallery was more extensive than the one available with 280 slides. It had the capability for some cool slide transition effects but was not as user friendly. I accidentally deleted the slides I created. However, it did have a handy undo command that reversed that error. But, it still did not have the WOW factor I was looking for.
Prezi
Just because our class resources for the week included a tutorial for Prezi, I did not want to make a quick decision that this was the tool I was going to use. However, after playing around with the tool briefly, it definitely has the WOW factor. There are so many cool effects that can be done in a Prezi presentation that I see this being a huge motivational factor for my young students. The presentations that can be created in this program have moved well beyond the typical slideshows possible through programs like PowerPoint and even 280 Slides and PreZentit. I know that I am going to have to really play and experiment with the Prezi tools but the outcome should be great and well worth the time.
On a side note, something else that really impressed me with Prezi was the upgraded membership/account available for teachers and students that allows for making content private, still at no cost. For even more options an EduPro license can be purchased at a very reasonable annual cost.
References:
Web 2.0: Cool Tools for Schools (2011). Retrieved from http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools
Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI had not gotten the opportunity to check out "280 Slides" when we started our work related to these presentation tools. I was intrigued to check it out simply by the name, which is sort of catchy.
After checking out the link related to the presentation tool for "280 Slides", I to was somewhat unimpressed with what it had to offer related to our class projects. There were some features of the website, that were user-friendly, but others that were not.
Hello Kelly,
ReplyDeleteI tried to look at the Prezentit but was unable to view it. The site had problems. I like that you compared 280 to the Prezentit so that i could easily tell which one was better. I would say of the three i would still prefer to use Prezi. The VIDDIX is a nice video presentation device that seem like it will be useful in presenting in two languages. One person can be speaking and text can be in another language for those ESL learners. I would like to try to make one of those in the future.
Thanks, adam