Presentation Tools

This week's post is about presentation tools. As Dr. Kimmel stated, between apps and the Web there are about eleventy billion choices. I chose to explore three that I'd never tried before. The first one was Slidely, which I found to be easy and pretty intuitive. I could see using Slidely for those end-of-the-year slideshow presentations. You can create a separate account or login using Facebook, which is what I chose to do. I was able to access all of my FB photos and albums instantly, and I made a quick slideshow of my kids' school pictures through the year. I was able to add music from an infinite (seemingly) range of choices, so I chose "Time in a Bottle." You can also make a collage or movie. You can of course upload pictures or access them directly from several different sources, including Flickr. Despite poking around, I couldn't figure out how to share my slideshow any way except on Facebook, although it does seem like there are other options if you can figure out how to do it.

The next tool I tried was Haiku Deck, which is very simple to use though its options are limited. Taking my inspiration from the name, I chose to illustrate a poem that I like. One of the nicest things about Haiku Deck is that it contains a large array of tagged photos, making it super easy to find photos for your slides. (They are internally credited, too, which is helpful.) The templates are simple and you cannot control very much, but it is definitely quick. HaikuDeck, like Slidely, is integrated with social media and available as an app. I wish there was a way to add music, and at least when I was using it the autosave function crashed Safari several times, but otherwise this is a very painless way to make a quick presentation. I think students who do not have much patience with technology could find many ways to use it. Here's my creation:


Life has loveliness to sell - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires


Finally, I tried Pixton, an online tool that allows you to create your own comic strips. The site offers a seven-day, limited function trial membership, after which you can pay for different installment plans that range up to $90 a year. The site offers a number of community features. The comic strips that others have created are way more impressive than this one (here's just one example), which I made in about 15 minutes using some Sondheim lyrics from the musical Company. While I am not inclined to pay to use a site like this, I could see students really enjoying it and using it for literature projects. How fun to illustrate a scene from a novel the class is reading, for example!