1

Sharing Resources – Online Slide-Shows

Sharing Resources - Online Slide-Shows

In previous posts, I have talked about various

applications and widgets: Photo-editing software,

audio manipulation software, animated avatars, etc.

These applications or resources may or may not

have been specifically created for educational

purposes. There is a myriad of applications out

there, and a multitude of skills to learn - this

sometimes can be a bit overwhelming. There is always a constant pressure on

us teachers to perform and to create new and interesting resources, and

especially, resources which can be shared online.

Sometimes we, as teachers, underestimate how much work we manage to

cram in during the year - and the re-usability of our resources. For example,

this year, for the Creativity & Innovation Projects, teachers were asked to look

at any ongoing projects or activities going on in their classrooms - such as e-

Twinning, Eko Skola or simply classroom based projects - and adapt their work

for sharing or online publishing (I am referring mostly to the Year 5 Blogs

Project on Skola Portal). Everyday resources, such as photos, videos or slide-

shows can be adapted for online viewing with minimal changes required.

One of the most common types of resources which you might be in possession

of are Slide Shows - Picture Slide shows or more traditional presentations or

Power Point Shows. Both can be adapted to online uploading and viewing - on

a website, wiki or blog - and we will now take a look at two popular services

which make this possible.

Power Point Slide-Shows

Power Point Slide-Shows can be surprisingly easy to adapt to online viewing -I

am talking, of course, of MS Power Points: the ones you might have already

prepared for your daily lessons, or a simple PPT created by your children. Of

course, MS Powerpoint Shows need a slight adjustment before they can go

online: they need to be converted in a way that your blog or website will

recognise them. Then - like with any other widget - its simply a case of

2

Sharing Resources – Online Slide-Shows

grabbing the correct Embed code and paste it in place. To make MS PPTs

available online, we can use a variety of web applications. I am going to talk

about just one of these popular services; however, there are others to choose

from. The services offered are free (upgrades are available at a cost - but

usually the basic service will cover your needs). The most important thing to

remember is that in order for them to work, registration is required the first

time round, and signing-in on the subsequent times.

SlideShare

One of the most popular PPT sharing resource is

SlideShare.net. It lets you upload your presentations

and share them in online a couple of simple clicks.

To try out the service and register, go to http://slideshare.net/ . You can opt to

browse existing presentations, try out some widgets or simply upload your

presentation. To upload your presentation, click on the Upload button on the

top of the page. You will be asked to choose a PPT from a location on your

computer, and, depending on the speed of your connection, your PPT will soon

be ready for viewing or embedding! (Each PPT must not exceed 100 MB and

you may upload up to 10 files at a time). You can choose a title, tags and

category for your PPT.

One thing to remember when using such services is that the uploading part is

only one half of the story (the same applies when uploading, for example, a

video on You Tube). After uploading your file(s) on the server, the application

needs to convert the file to a format that is globally recognisable and

embeddable. After the file has uploaded, remember to click on Publish so that

your presentation will be converted into online format.

After the Presentation has been uploaded, you may wish to alter Permissions

surrounding it. You can also opt to have a private, restricted view or public

Presentation. You may also opt to let people download the presentation onto

their PCs or not. It all depends on what you intend to do with your

Presentation. All these settings can be changed and accessed any time after

uploading, by clicking on My Slidespace - where all your uploaded PPTs reside -

click on the PPT whose settings you wish to change, and then on Edit. You will

3

Sharing Resources – Online Slide-Shows

be shown up the options page once more, and will be given the chance to do

the required edits. Remember to click on Update to change your settings.

NB. Different platforms require different Embed Codes. The Embed Code is

basically a piece of script which will allow your newly uploaded presentation to

be visible on your Website/Wiki/Blog or Social Networking Site. Depending on

where you want your presentation to appear, select the appropriate embed

code - usually you will see a little icon symbolising the type of embed - the

orange letter B for Blogger Code, the blue F for Facebook, the black W for

Wordpress, etc. You may also share your presentation by e-mail by copying

and pasting the URL where your presentation has been uploaded onto an e-

mail message.

Photo-Slide Shows

Instead of simply sharing photos online, why not put them together and create

a movie-like slide show? There are various applications which allow this - the

two most popular ones are Slide.Com and Animoto. Both have very similar

interfaces and rely on the principal of uploading photos, adding effects and

transitions, and finally publishing and sharing your work. Here, we are going to

take a quick look at Slide.com; if you are interested in Animoto you may log

onto a previous post I created on my blog,

http://teachersandcomputers.blogspot.com/2009/03/animoto.html.

4

Sharing Resources – Online Slide-Shows

Slide.com

Slide.com is a photo-sharing application - similar to MS Photostory

- and allows you to create interesting photo-slide shows. It is available on

http://slide.com and like other online applications it requires registration the

first time round.

To start your first slide-show, sign in with the username and password you

have created upon registration, and click on Make a Slide Show. You will be

prompted to start adding your photos - either from your PC or else grab photos

from other online albums that you might already have, such as Flickr or

Facebook (Remember - Re-Usabilty!). Each photo may also be individually

named.

While you are waiting for photos to load (in order to shorten uploading times,

remember to resize them for the Web!), you might wish to change your slide-

show's settings:

• Style: Change the way your photos will appear on the screen - i.e. the

transition from one photo to the next;

• Skin: Change slide-show's player as it will be displayed on your website;

• Themes: Add a theme animation to your slide-show, such as sparkles or

hearts;

• Music/Video: Add some music from a good choice of tracks, to suit all

moods and occasions;

• Background: Change your slide-show's

background colour;

• Effects: Add effects to your photos, such as b/w

and sepia tints;

• Size: Change the size (in pixels) of your slide-

show;

• Privacy: Determine the privacy settings of your

slide-show - who will be able to view or download your creation

5

Sharing Resources – Online Slide-Shows

As soon as all your photos are uploaded, you can change their order on the

story-board at the bottom of the screen, or change any effects or styles as

desired. When that is done, you may Save and Get Code. As in the case for

other widgets, remember to grab the correct code according to where you are

uploading your work. For example, Wetpaint Wikis do not support script tags.

Usually all popular services are supported. If you are unsure of what you need,

or your favourite blog or wiki isn't listed in the code list, try grabbing a copy of

another application's embed code and see if that works - sometimes its just a

simple case of trial and error!

NB There are several applications which will allow sharing of resources online;

unfortunately I cannot go through them all here. However here are some

additional sites which you might want to try out:

For sharing Power Point Presentations:

http://authorstream.com/

http://docs.google.com/

For creating photo slide-shows:

http://animoto.com/

http://onetruemedia.com/

Notes by Amanda R. Debattista