This assignment was a look at different online presentation tools. It was interesting because the three that were suggested: Prezi, Voicethread and Slideshare were new to me. I had looked into SlideShare a little bit while working on my Glog, but I had never seen the other two at all. It was intimidating at first to have to compare three online tools I had never used, but after exploring them for a while I felt like I had a really good grasp on what they were all about.
All three of them are sort of like an advanced take on PowerPoint. Prezi can make some really cool virtual maps. Slideshare adds a little more element of animation and sound. Voicethread can be super personalized to incorporate audio and video of the creator. I found elements that I liked and didn’t like about all three. So I felt ready to start my project. But…
Part of the point of this project what to be creative in how we gave our rationale. No typing up a report in a Word document or even making a PowerPoint of my findings. I had an image of what I wanted to do in my head. I got on Kidspiration…and found that my free trial had ended. So I went to Glogster and started creating a Glog…but you aren’t able to embed files into Glogs with the exception of YouTube videos. I was stumped.
So I went online and browsed for hours. Finally, I came across a website for an online tool I had never even heard of before: Simplebooklet. Apparently you can use this free online tool to create a virtual brochure, and yes, you can embed! I was so happy! All three presentations will play within my brochure, which was exactly what I wanted. And, I found out that I could even embed live websites into my brochure, so I did that instead of listing each website. So cool!
I decided to do my project comparing presentations about a daily routine at school. This is something that I think I’d like to do for my preschool class at the beginning of a new school year. Establishing a good routine is so important, and some students struggle with getting that routine down and are still working on it all year long! So I thought that having a presentation that they could watch over and over at free computer time would really help them. And I thought it might also be very enjoyable for them if it featured their pictures and maybe even their audio! The only issue I had with this topic was that I couldn’t find preschool examples on each site for a daily routine, except for on VoiceThread (after a lot of searching!). Although it isn’t a preschool class, I did find some good examples of the concept on Prezi and SlideShare, that could be used as inspiration to me and my students for creating our own project.
I started putting my project together and it was really fun and easy to use. I made a 7-page brochure comparing Prezi, SlideShare and VoiceThread. I didn’t throw Simplebooklet into the comparison because I was literally figuring it out as I went along, and I didn’t really think it was quite the same as the other three. It doesn’t show presentations, but rather brochures, but the lines are certainly more blurred once you throw all kinds of media into the mix. I’m not sure that it would be ideal for preschoolers, but I liked using Simplebooklet so much that I plan to use it for homework projects or personal use in the future. The only problem is that after 3 Simplebooklets, I think you have to pay for a subscription, but I’m not quite sure.
This project started out very trying and difficult, but ended up being a lot of fun, and once I found Simplebooklet, it was a piece of cake to put together. Sadly, I just discovered that embedding your Simplebooklet into a WordPress page is an available feature only if you have a paid subscription. But if you click on the image of my Simplebooklet below, it will take you to a page where you can view the whole thing! Also, be warned that without a paid subscription, there will be ads in my brochure! Totally annoying, but I still really like this online tool. I hope the ads aren’t a problem and I hope you enjoy my brochure!
My Online Presentation Assignment on Simplebooklet
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