An Adventure in Exploring On-line Presentation Options

As a teacher always on the prowl for new and innovative ways to engage my students, I happily checked out a few on-line presentation options.

My students have become proficient at creating PowerPoint presentations so earlier this year, I introduced them to Popplet.com which is a free presentation program wherein the user creates what appears to be a graphic organizer made of bubbles. You can input videos (including YouTube videos), images and text into a bubble. At any point, the user can create a presentation path, connecting bubble to bubble. When in presentation mode, each bubble enlarges and swings into view until the arrow button is pushed changing to the next slide. Popplet.com is free. Each of my students needed an email address to set up an account. They could allow their partners access to the project so they could each work on it at home. They enjoyed the novelty of a new project making tool and the presentations turned out great. One drawback I faced was being able to access the students’ Popplets myself. When the students create a PowerPoint, I can copy it to a flash drive and take it home to grade, but not with the Popplets.

            Last Sunday, I gave Prezi.com a whirl by creating a presentation to use in my classroom on Monday. It was not difficult to figure out how to make the program work. I liked the end product better than the Popplet, but it was more challenging to navigate. The students enjoyed my presentation and I was able to update and expand it between classes. I could share the presentation and have them write things down without their realizing they were actually taking notes. The premise is the same as Popplet.com. You have bubbles in which you can add text or images. The presentation mode is more fun. It makes you feel a little like you are on a rollercoaster.

            I went to both websites, Web2.0: Cool Tools for School and Web Tools 4 U 2 Use to check out some prospective on-line presentation tool, looking for one to use for my endangered species project.  I read the blurbs promoting each option. Many of the choices, like GoogleDocs, emphasized the opportunity for collaboration, which I do not need for this project. The fact that it is an on-line writing tool piques my interest in sharing it with one of my teammates. The majority of options promoted themselves as being able to create slideshows, add music or sounds, in addition to having the capacity for being uploaded and shared with friends.

            What I want is something different, and I think I found it with Glogster.com. It seems to be a site where you can create a poster of information that includes text, pictures, images, and video links. If I am right, I should be able to use my scrapbooking skills to make something intriguing. I have barely started and may crash and burn, but I like a challenge. Have any of you out there had any experience with creating glogs?  Let me know.

Website: Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools—Presentation Tools
http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools
Explore a sampling of Web 2.0 presentation tools.

Website: Webtools4u2use—Creating Presentations
http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools