L-Plates – Play Activity – Week 8

Wow!  What a great play activity.  I do not know about everyone else but for me to learn, I need to have practice as well as theory.  Before this week, I had no knowledge with the presentation tools that help information delivery.  Therefore, I decided to investigate and record my findings on my blog.

  Presentation Tools

 Screencasting:  Is the recording of computer screens with narrative.  It allows users to learn by example and for the creator to provide clear and complete instructions [Adam Hay].  Only disadvantage with screencasting it is not interactive [Educause] but it still a good way for students to learn to do audio presentation.

Slidecasting:  Format development by [SlideShare] to allow teachers and librarians to link audio to their slide presentation.  I found a great site that answers questions about slidecasting [Frequently Asked Questions].

Slidesharing:  To share slides presentation on the Internet without audio and allows teachers and librarians to share their Conference PowerPoint presentation with their colleagues. (See Presentation 3)

After looking at all the free presentation tools, I decided to finish week 8-play activity by using the following:

[SlideShare]:  Not only a great place to load and view PowerPoint presentations, it also allows you to contact people who have the same interest.  Actually, it could be considered great networking tool, which allows users to embed/link their presentation to websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter [Matthew Allen].

[Screencast-O-Matic]:  Allows teachers and librarians to record computer screens with narrative for class presentations.  See the following YouTube presentation.

I finally finished my screencasting activity and I wish I could have had a voice double but still the experience was enjoyable and I did learn a lot.  Slidecasting and screencasting not only helps classroom learning, they also help libraries to provide more access to their information literacy programs.  [SlideShare] and [Screencast-O-Matic] are great tools and so easy to use, the only problem was the operator who is still on her L-Plates.  We all need a laugh so enjoy the following presentations.  In the future I would uses [SlideShare] over [Screencast-O-Matic] my reason are:

SlideShare:

PROS:

1. Easy to use
2. Interactive
3. Tags
4. Allows you to store your conference presentations
5. Allows you to share presentations with others
6. Easy to update
7. Free – Purchasing is optional
8. Allows audio presentation
9. Allows notes
10. Help – Yes

CONS:

1. Others can use your presentations
2. Audio and slides are done separately

Screencast-O-Matic

PROS:

1. Easy to use
2. Allows comments
3. Allows notes
4. Allows audio presentation
5. Great learning tool for students
6. Allows you to share presentations with others

Cons:

1. Not interactive
2. Have to purchase to store more then one presentation
3. No tags
4. Update the whole presentation again
5. Help Desk – poor