Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

5 fun presentation tools for end-of-year projects

As the school year winds down, tests and final projects are looming. Class presentations can be a great way for students to synthesize knowledge, practice public speaking, and interact with their classmates. But there are also potential drawbacks: Standing up and speaking in front of peers can be nerve-racking (even for some adults!), and the presentations themselves can become repetitive and formulaic.

Multimedia presentation tools can reduce student anxiety by encouraging a creative approach that not only builds design and tech skills but also can turn an intimidating final assignment into a fun experience. Check out five of our top picks below:

5 fun presentation tools

1. Shadow Puppet Edu  
Price: Free
Platforms: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Grades: 2–12…Read More

This easy presentation software lets students focus on content, not design

Students spend more time playing around with presentation software than you might think. Shouldn’t they be using that time on the material itself?

Imagine if there was presentation software that could give students and teachers what they want, while reducing time and energy spent on aspects of the task that don’t impact the final grade.

Imagine software that eliminated most of the design and technical knowledge while still producing a professional product — with a minimal learning curve.

Presentations are a key part of the academic world, and multimodal assignments are frequently assigned. In most cases, the teacher wants to know what the student knows and understands about the topic being presented. The knowledge of how to use the software and the design principles (i.e. their understanding of appropriate font size and color, image placement and size, white space, etc.) is rarely reflected in the criteria/rubric used to grade the presentation.…Read More