Browsing "Cool sites"
I was alerted to this great tool the other week by the great Doug Belshaw when he made this presentation here: http://dougbelshaw.com/presentations/2012/eskills/index.html#/ - this web based presentation has a number of key benefits to it. For starters, it’s really really simple to use, particularly if you use the web based creation tool found here: http://www.rvl.io/.
Getting started
Single sign on is supported so you can use your existing Google, OpenID, Yahoo or AOL account. Once in, you simply create a new deck, give your presentation a name and you’re presented with a number of options via the toolbar.
Formatting
Looking like most text editor tools, you can simply type in to your slide and add in the media you may want with it too. Font choices, formatting, sizes, colours, alignments and more mean you can lay out your information simply and beautifully. Remember the golden rule of presentations too where less is more. When you’re ready, start a new slide with the plus symbol.
Adding new slides
One of the things I like most about the tool is that you can nest similar themes in vertical slides (down) before moving horizontally (to the right) to the next theme within your presentation. You can see this in my presentation from TeachMeet Clevedon here on SAMR and transformational use of technology to support learning: http://www.rvl.io/ictevangelist/transforming-learning-using-technology
Adding images
Interestingly too, adding images is a simple process too, either add them in by uploading the local versions of the image or simply link to where the image you want to use is hosted online.
Embedding YouTube
I’ve also worked out that you can embed YouTube videos in to your slides too. To do this, I got the embed link from YouTube. Clicked the HTML icon on the slide toolbar. Pasted in the embed code. Job done.
Finished?
When you’re done, simply tap the publish button and you can access your presentation from the generated URL. Alternatively, if you want to do as Doug as done, just choose Export, download the completed presentation folder and put it on to your online hosting space. Interestingly, this also works if you want to just run it from your local machine. Just remember, because the presentation is built using web architectures and tools such as Javascript, you will need all of the files in the presentation folder in order for it to work. For the simplest way to work it, just leave it saved in your deck on the rv.lio website and access all of your presentations in one place.
iPad/iPhone?
Thanks to @mattbritland for checking. Making a presentation on your iPad or iPhone is possible but you can’t really add images plus making links isn’t easy. Recommendation? Make your presentation using a different device, ie laptop/desktop. All that said, showing your presentation on your phone or your iPad looks seriously slick. All you have to do is swipe your finger over the slide in the direction you want to move to next and you’re away.
Map view in iOS
You can also zoom out and see your presentation in map view, which is always handy before starting your presentation to remind you where to go, but also nice at the end to remind viewers where they’ve been. To access this simply pinch with your fingers. Tap back on a slide to zoom back in.
Extras?
To move through your slides, simply use the cursor / arrow keys to navigate through your slides. Interestingly, it also works with clickers, so it’s a great way of presenting without having to stand near your machine to move through every slide.
Happy presenting!
Found this fab site for creating flyers recently (thanks @mattbritland) which is simply brilliant.
www.smore.com
Simply add in the building blocks you want, choose your theme / layout / background and away you go. I’ve found it particularly useful as it takes the technical side of learning software out of the equation because it is so simple to use. This means students can readily get in to demonstrating the topic they are working on really quickly and easily.
Add the building blocks shown here to build your flyer
Features? Embed text, videos, images, maps, calendars and loads more. And it all looks super-swish. Here are some examples. Click the links at the bottom to see the full examples online:
http://smore.com/b082
http://smore.com/6rp4
Thanks to @andyhutt for the heads up on this one.
Love this site for creating your own animated presentations. Here’s one I made earlier (mind out if you have speakers on for the annoying jingle at the end though!).
It’s got a really simple to use interface with fab features too. Add in your text, build in your presentation, animations, images, music, you can even add your own voiceover.
User interface for creating your own ‘PowToon’!
Check it out now by visiting http://www.powtoon.com - watch to sign up for the Edu version too #tweachers!
Following meeting the lovely Catherine Cains from Brislington Enterprise College, Bristol, I was asked to present at her TeachMeet following on from her BITES event at Brislington. I was unfortunately unable to make it, but recorded these 20 ideas in 5 minutes for her which you can now see on YouTube:
Many is the time when I’ve been considering ways to flip my classrooms. MentorMob provides an excellent way of doing this. A web 2.0 tool to share ‘learning playlists’ - a bit like micro favourite lists as you might see on delicious, the site allows members of the community to build the learning playlist based upon a specific topic. Where it differs from a posh list of links is that you can build the list with an order of difficulty, ‘beginner’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘advanced’. One of the coolest features of the lot (for teachers) is that you can also add in pop quizzes within the playlist. Adding in learning checks based upon multiple choice or true/false options. Okay, this doesn’t lend itself to higher order / extended abstract responses but it’s not there to completely replace the role of the teacher!
I dipped my toes in to the MentorMob community last week with a playlist aimed at putting all of my resources about the power of Twitter for teachers all in to one place. I linked up all my blog posts, put them in ascending order, added in the great screencasts by @DavidMiller_UK and published.
In the course of a week, the playlist has had a total of more than 10,000 hits. I’ve been receiving stories about how the playlist has been used by schools and teachers all over the world to help teachers looking to join Twitter to support their own professional development. It’s been amazing.
All that to one side, it has really struck me how this tool could be used to construct learning playlists for students to work through prior to their attendance in lessons. What I am going to trial next week is sharing playlists with students prior to their lessons. I am going to ask students to work through the playlist for their homework and then when they attend class, I will build upon and develop their learning, using the flipped model. I think it’s going to work really well. What do you think?
Thanks to the wonderful blog of Laura Knight (@elearninglaura) http://www.elearninglaura.net/ I stumbled across the brilliant tool – PiktoChart where you can easily make your own cool infographics.
The best thing is that you can create some cool infographics in the easy to use UI really easily and for free. Okay, for some of the cooler features you have to pay for a bit extra, but hey – the free version is cool nonetheless. I can see this being used in lots of subjects, particularly when working with statistics and demonstrating them in fun and interesting ways. Maths, Geography, Business Studies, Drama, Music….. the list goes on.
Give it a go!
Popplet is a great tool which you can use for free online for a number of different reasons:
- A revision tool
- A presentation tool
- A mindmapping tool
- An idea collation tool
- A collaborative tool (you can connect with other Popplet users to collate ideas / work collaboratively)
There are lots of different reasons why you might want to use Popplet in your classroom. If you’ve got some great ideas, please drop me a comment below.
You can get to an iPad app version too. There’s a free ‘lite’ version and the full version (which is £2.99)
The short screencast below shows you how to set up a Popplet, arrange your Popples, link them up, turn it in to a presentation, view them offline and more.
Check this awesome inspirational site. Great for practising basic graphics skills, inspiring your mind and can easily see it being a fantastic site for starters or even plenaries. Check it out. Impressive!
via @andyhutt
Amaze Your Education Colleagues
This fine academic tool was designed to assist in the writing of reports, grant applications, and other documents related to public schools. I believe that it will be particularly useful for people involved in writing reports for WASC accreditation. Amaze your colleagues with finely crafted phrases of educational nonsense! The javascript code is adapted from Dack.com’s Web Economy BS Generator
Thanks to the heads up on this one from the ever brilliant Kate Cheal over at http://www.edukates.com – definitely check her blog out too!
In this section you’ll find a collection of nursery songs from our Early Learning series Listen and Play and Playtime, both of which are currently available on iplayer and as podcasts.
They’re an ideal resource to support a range of Early Years skills, whether used in a nursery environment or at home.
I know that this isn’t #edtech particularly related to Secondary, but how cool is it to have all of these nursery rhymes and songs freely available to access – PLUS their lyrics. Good old BBC!
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