Evaluating Web 2.0 Presentation Tools

This week found me diving deep into presentation tools, their creative nature, and ease of implementation. Not being the most tech-savvy individual around, I entered each site eyes wide open. Several of these sites were quite engaging, wile others challenged me beyond my technological comfort zone. I found similarities to old familiar tools i.e. PowerPoint, which granted me some comfort.

PreZenit was one such tool. I also believe my students would be comfortable making a transition to PreZentit. The tutorial was simple to manipulate thus creating a limited learning curve. Transitioning from slide to slide was effortless. The program could be accessible from home and school. One item I specifically appreciated was the ability for students to work on the same presentation at the same time. PowerPoint limits this collaboration. This presentation tool was one of my favorites and I would recommend this site to my colleagues.

Animoto was one tool I know my students would totally engage in. As I ventured into the education area of Animoto, I spent time researching how to bring lessons to life. The music, the photos, the equipment are the best I’ve ever seen. The site offered several demos to view, each highly creative with high quality videos using digital pictures and PowerPoint storyboarding. The cost to use ranged from $30 to $249 per year. Although Animoto does not appear to be the tool I would use for this course project, I would recommend this site to my colleagues. It is an extremely engaging and motivational tool.

A third tool I investigated was Viddex based in the Netherlands. The format appears to focus more on businesses than educational fields.

My.brainshark was a cool tool. It allows you to add your own voice to the presentation or narrate a story or lesson. Uploading videos is what caught my attention as well. I use flip cameras in my classroom and this tool would enhance presentations. Numerous features such as inserting background music and producing a podcast is available. I would recommend this site.

I ventured into Prezi and really like this presentation tool. It appears much different than the others in format. It offers step-by-step tutorials and a complete reference guide manual. This site was only one that I saw addressed educators and a price package ranging from free $59 a year.

The last presentation tool I researched was 280slides. There is no software to download and it appears to be free. I found it much like PowerPoint with greater sophistication of slides. There were numerous themes built in to choose from as well.

Although I have merely surfaced my research on presentation tools, I am looking not for just one to benefit me during my coursework, but others to implement into my classroom. I was very pleased with the various formats and believe a couple of those mentioned earlier would be successful tools for our course projects, as well as, implementation into our classrooms. These new tools do indeed push the boundaries of the technology which is used at my school; extremely innovative, offering numerous means of engaging students. Each of the tools researched are accessible both in and out of the classrooms, offer a variety of sound and video elements, and appear to be quite reliable tools.

References:
http://animoto.com/education/
http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Presentation+Tools
http://my.brainshark.com/home.aspx
http://prezentit.com/
http://prezi.com/
http://280slides.com/
http://www.viddix.com/