Present This...

These are all really great online resources for presenting information.

I was not familiar at all with Animoto (http://www.animoto.com) but found this presentation tool quite easy to use. I think to gain the full benefits form this program it would be best to go Pro because there are many more options that look more professional and are higher quality. The presentations are quite simple but for it’s purpose quite useful. I would have to explore it further to see if you can create more complex and interesting presentations. I guess it is your content that really makes the presentation interesting.

I created a very short 23-second presentation using animoto. I would use this type of presentation for sharing special events with family and friends, like vacations, birthdays, baptisms, etc. I liked that you had the option of choosing your own music or selections from their archive. They had a wide range of options and music themes to choose from.

For educational purposes

· it would be neat to present recent field trips. For example if students went to the art gallery they could create short visual presentations on a particular artist or art theme like impressionism.

· for history students could create visual presentations on a particular civilizations or peoples using images from the ‘creative commons’ galleries.

· In marketing they could create their own businesses and use this presentation format to advertise or promote their company.

Check out my 23 second Animoto presentation above. Thought this would be appropriate now that the days are getting longer again...Daylight Ends

The first time I saw an Xtranormal (http://www.xtranormal.com/) presentation was a couple of months ago. I looked up the movie again and there were dozens of other ones in the same vein. They were pretty funny involving a conversation between the cute little bear creatures from Xtranormal about the iPhone 4 in comparison to various other types of cell phones. The one salesperson character had an extensive list of features for other phones that were overwhelmingly better than the iPhone 4 but there was no convincing the customer of wanting anything other than the iPhone 4 even if the price starts at $20 and you can call all over the world for free or that it transforms into a jet and flies you anywhere you want to go, it also has a 36 megapixel camera and is cheaper than the iPhone 4. Sometimes you just can’t convince someone otherwise! Click on the image to your right to view:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNz9gfs5Dw0&feature=related

I then decided to try this out and create my own Xtranormal movie, just a short little film where one bear invited the other to their birthday party. I did manage to save it on the site but in order to publish it I had to pay at least $10. I didn’t think there was a fee for most of these services. I searched the site for their policies but couldn’t figure out how to produce a free movie? Therefor I could not share a link with you here.

For personal use these movies could be fun ways to send invitations, create little skits with your children or share funny anecdotes with your friends or family.

In an educational setting Xtranormal presentations would be a fun way to present any kind of information on a specific topic. The site allows you to choose characters, settings, camera movements, gestures, sound effects etc…which can add to the learning experience of looking at how we communicate with each other and how to create mood, comedy, tension etc. within a visual presentation.

Lastly I experimented with Prezi (http://prezi.com/) I was very impressed with the capabilities of this web application. Whoever developed this concept was a programming genius. I love the format and the look of the presentations that you can create. I put together a short resource list of fractured fairytales based on an annotated bibliography I had put together for my other online course (LLED 462). Click on the image below to view.

This program is so intuitive and I was able to figure things out even though I did not remember some of the features within the tutorials I watched, e.g. how to undue a mistake. The one thing I could not figure out was how to go back into your text and make edits. It is probably the simplest thing but I had to create another text box and just re-write it again. Beyond that I just loved using their ‘zebra tool’ and found it super easy to navigate offering logical and fun options to create an interesting presentation. The organizing icon used for developing the whole site was awesome and super easy to use. This non-linear style application keeps you interested and is able to link with images and video that are so easily added to your presentations.

For personal use this is a great medium for sharing ideas and concepts with people, telling a story, I even thought about using it for an online resume.

I would definitely use this as a presentation tool in the library. It would be great to enhance book talks, to explain a concept, to model a presentation that students could put together. Students could easily create presentations on any topic, gathering information, collecting images and links to videos that would make any presentation interesting and unique.

These were great ideas I found on the website: drkisane – coach to women entrepreneurs

http://drkisane.com/using-prezi-to-create-stunning-presentations/

Things You Can Do …

• Tell A Story … e.g. A Day In The Life Of…
• Teach A Subject … e.g. Marketing Online
• Describe A Concept … e.g. Network Marketing

• Illustrate An Attitude … e.g. Gratitude
• Describe Something … e.g. Social Media
• Provide Tips … e.g. Different Formats For Same Content
• List Things … e.g. WP Plugins

I will definitely use this program in the future.