Beyond Powerpoint: 8 online tools
Presenters: Robin Ladouceur, Instructional Design Specialist, Instructional Technology Group
Pam Patterson, Sr. Instructional Technologist, Instructional Technology Group
Robin began with a personal story about Powerpoint, which detailed her frustration and fumbling with the omnipresent Microsoft product, and was one that most faculty can probably relate to. Making a presentation with Powerpoint can be a laborious process and inserting multimedia is not very easy. Additionally, sharing presentations require your students to have the same version of Powerpoint and if you have included video clips, it is even harder to do. Powerpoint has its strengths as it is the industry standard and you can work offline, but the session today outlined 8 online presentation tools that could be an alternative to Powerpoint. They all have a low learning curve, allow easy integration of multimedia, and offer options to easily share your presentation. They do require an Internet connection, although some do have offline presenter options. See a description of the tools below as well as links to the sites so you can get started. Contact itg@yale.edu for more information.
ARTstor OIV (Offline Image Viewer)
ARTstor is a library database that gives you access to over 1.25 digital images total and includes images from Yale’s Visual Resources Collection. Offline Image Viewer is a software program created by ARTstor that you can download and use to create presentations from ARTstor images. You can also add your own images. It offers two types of ways to present, a dynamic presentation where you choose images on the fly from the group of images you downloaded or a static slideshow. There is the ability to zoom into detail both in the dynamic presentation mode or in the static slideshow mode. Additionally, all the information about the image from ARTstor is available within the OIV environment.
Contact carolyn.caizzi@yale.edu from the Visual Resources Collection if you would like a tutorial in how to use ARTstor and/or OIV.
An easy way to share a set of images. Upload your images and easily create a slide show. Options include the ability to map images. You can also now add up to 90 seconds of video.
Social networking site for presentations. Can upload an already made presentation and make it public or share it by a link to a select group of people. Can upload Powerpoint, Keynote, PDF, Office documents. Robin’s presentation in Slideshare.” title=”http://www.slideshare.net/yale_itg/slideshare-2083605\”>Slideshare.” target=”_blank”>www.slideshare.net/yale_itg/slideshare-2083605″>Slideshare.
Log in with a Google or Yahoo account. Can make presentation shareable and write-able (for collaborating) or share it as read-only. Can give remote presentations to others. Can export the presentation to a variety of formats including Powerpoint.
“Rich media presentation tool. Upload your video, images and audio to get started creating cool slideshows. If you have your own website, blog, or social networking page, you can either post a link or embed your Empressr.” Can share your presentation.
Slideshare on steroids. Is fee-based. Free 30 day trial.
Can create a new presentation or import Powerpoint. Can install Desktop Presenter so you can present without an Internet connection.
Maintains a library of media assets (videos, images, etc.) that you upload so you can easily re-use the same image or video in different presentations. Transitions, animations, charts and tables are available at your fingertips. The user interface similar to iMovie. Marketplace allows you to purchase stock photography for the presentations. Here is the link to Robin’s Sliderocket presentation on the pros and cons of sliderocket.
Free or Pro account available for a fee.
Does not use the concept of slides. Rather, it gives you one big canvas that contains all your media and text. The basic technique is to begin visually with an idea (the big picture) and then you can zoom into your points which are usually represented by smaller fonts. Can download and use an offline presenter (Pro). Tips and tricks for using Prezi created with Prezi, of course: http://prezi.com/wesbmcijhqvx/view/#34
Is geared toward digital storytelling as the presentation moves slowly from left to right. You can add images, text, audio, and video to the timeline. Perfect for presenting visual timelines.