Creative+Authoring+and+Presentation+Tools

This page has a review and my perspective on a number of creative authoring and presentation tools that can be used in an educational setting. I'll first describe various presentation tools, and then look at some movie tools, then I provide links to my classmates reviews - where you can find their perspective as well! ====

**Presentation tools:**

 * [|PowerPoint][[image:vadhopper/Prezi logo.jpg width="268" height="120" align="right" link="@http://www.Prezi.com"]]
 * sliderocket[[image:slidetocket logo.gif]]
 * Prezi
 * Empressr[[image:http://www.empressr.com/imgs/empressr_logo.png link="@http://www.empressr.com"]][[image:http://larryhendrick.com/main/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/zoho-logo1.jpg width="132" height="109" align="right" link="@http://www.zoho.com"]]
 * Zoho - Show
 * Google Docs - presentations

The plethora of tools available to make presentations today is really astounding. Due to my business career, I have become very proficient at using all the bells and whistles of PowerPoint. Before this class, I was familiar with Prezi, but I had no idea there were so many others good online presentation tools.

I still like PowerPoint - mainly because I really know how to use it. And you will hear that theme throughout these musings. There is a lot to be said for familiarity. I spent about ten years as a technology consultant, and it was always very important to plan transitions and take them carefully.

Here's a great example of how far you can take PowerPoint. This is a narrated PowerPoint. It is best watched with PowerPoint (versus online with Google Presentations) in order to get the narration and all the effects. If you don't have PowerPoint, get the free viewer here. Overall, PowerPoint is the standard bearer and has the most versatility.

The beauty of sliderocket, Prezi, Empressr (which did not impress me), Zoho show, and Google docs presentation is their online aspect. So you can work on them from everywhere, and you don't need to load any software. In fact, you have to pay in order to take presentations offline for viewing from Prezi,and sliderocket. All of these have free versions for use by teachers.

The biggest problem with all the online versions is that you must have online access in order to do anything with the file. In order to work with a presentation offline, you must be able to download it, and you must have software loaded on the computer. PowerPoint and Prezi can be worked on completely offline.

All these apps can make a presentation for teaching content, and they also can be used by students to create presentations of their own. Students teaching content is one of the best ways from them to really learn that content. media type="youtube" key="rXSiaIu6psU?feature=player_detailpage" height="288" width="512" align="right"

**Movie Tools:**

 * Photostory [|My sample is available here] - but you will have to first install photostory, (a free download)
 * iMovie (see the video on the right)
 * Windows Movie Maker
 * xtranormal Here is my xtranormal presentation - roughly done in 30 minutes, I would have embedded it - but it's huge because of the movie file I embedded into it. Lots of fun to create. I may try to upload to youtube in order to embed.

Movie's are a great way for students to engage in the material they work with. They can create simple movie's from Photostory - or the get more involved with full motion video with Movie Maker in Windows 7 or iMovie in Apple. Unfortunately, Photostory, which is really simple to use, is being phased out - and it is not supported in Windows 7 (although it does work). I have not had an opportunity to use the movie making tools yet, but they are a little bit more complicated. That complication may be worthwhile with motivated students, but that could pose a challenge to some. In the end, having a movie is something students will generally really appreciate and remember.

**Publication Tools**

 * Calaméo
 * [|Bookemon]

These online software possibilities are great for publishing. Calaméo is designed to create magazines, and Bookemon is used to create books. They both have their limitations, but also have great potential. Bookemon even has an iPad app. The biggest problem with both is the limitation in accessing the material offline. With the fully paid version, you can download things from Calaméo, but with bookemon, sharing is quite straightforward. Bookemon allows you to print small orders of the book - which is great for yearbooks and the like.