App Ed Review
Student Presentations are a Fun, Powerful Active Learning Tool
By: Todd Cherner and Alex Fegely
Looking to spice up how your students present their work to their peers and you? After a review of apps, we have some app suggestions for you and your students! SlideIdea, Haiku Deck, Livestream, and Prezi each have a unique method for presenting information that your students are sure to engage! Each of them offer different means, templates, and modalities for presentation delivery that your students are sure to find useful. A key idea we urge you to consider, though, is that students still need to be taught what qualities are found in an effective presentation.
About our reviews, each and every app reviewed by App Ed Review is analyzed against a comprehensive rubric in a consistent, informative manner by a panel of state-certified teachers. In addition, each review includes 3-5 instructional ideas for how to integrate the app into your teaching!
- Do your student need support as they learn to create innovative presentations? If so, SlideIdea might be the app for you and your students! Not only does SlideIdea provide presentation templates, students can also choose an engaging theme. For middle-level educators, this app is ideal because it has students develop their digital presentation skills using supportive templates. Once they become competent in SlideIdea, students will be able to use more sophisticated presentation software, such as PowerPoint and Prezi. With high scores for engagement and design, SlideIedea will be a sure hit in the classroom. For its full review, click here.
- Haiku Deck is an easy-to-use app for designing presentations and sharing them. Similar to other presentation apps, Haiku Deck offers students templates they can use to create a presentation. However, what separates Haiku Deck from other presentation apps is that Haiku Deck allows a smaller amount of text to be entered on each slide, which forces students to use succinct language on their slides. This, in turn, sharpens their presentation writing skills. Scoring highly for its ability to engage students with its design and requirement that students use higher-order thinking skills, Haiku Deck is a must-have app for the classroom. To read our full review, click here.
- Want to reach multiple students simultaneously or broadcast your class or content out to viewers? Using just a tablet’s built in camera, teachers can reach anyone with class content through Livestream. The Livestream community is constantly streaming public events like lectures, concerts, educational talks, sports, and more. Livestream can be the best fieldtrip your class will take without having to leave the classroom! Check out the whole review here.
- Prezi, the more entertaining and engaging sister of PowerPoint, has an app! Users can view presentations they have created previously on a computer, edit presentations, or create presentations with pictures and text. Prezi viewers zoom through a navigated slideshow journey of twists and turns, and these presentations can be projected and/or shared. Scoring a whopping 9 in Engagement on our comprehensive rubric, Prezi’s full review, including instructional ideas, is available here.
That’s all for this month’s Roundup. If you would like more information about any of the apps mentioned in this Roundup or that are on the App Ed Review website, please contact us at info@appedreview.com. And remember, a visual aid is not what makes a quality presentation; rather, it is the delivery of the presentation that counts!
