Well this has been the most challenging activity for me so far! I had all sorts of dramas in synchronising the narration to the slideshow. I feel quite embarrassed, as I spent ages last night trying to do a narration without any success, to find that my headphones had been plugged in before, and not after, I uploaded my Audacity program. Therefore the program did not recognise the microphone. I was cursing the program and just about to give up, but I am like a dog with a bone and it wasn't going to get the better of me.
Along with downloading the Audacity program for narrating an audio file, I had to download an accompanying program called Lame, which allowed me to convert my audio file to an MP3 file. If anyone is interested, both these programs are free and easy to use, and I have had no great issues with them.
My presentation was initially a forty minute presentation, so I have cut it down to pieces as I didn't want to bore you to tears. After uploading the presentation to slideshare and converting the file, unfortunately the animations are not working and the slide featuring the roman room has shrunk to half its original size. Also the YouTube links are not working.
I believe Slideshare would save teachers valuable time, as they could set up presentations or further explanations of key concepts for topics discussed in class, that students could watch and listen to at their own leisure and review if necessary. Students could even download presentations to their own USB for revision purposes.
I was speaking to a teacher the other day who uses powerpoint and audio when conducting parent/teacher interviews. The particular teacher sets up slides with each of her student's photo and accompanying audio of the student reading poems or stories they have written, playing music, or displaying artwork and giving an appraisal of their work. The teacher then plays the slides for the respective parents at the interview. I thought this was an interesting use of powerpoint.
Overall, I found the Slideshare website very user friendly and I will definitely be using it in the future.
Hello Meryl,
ReplyDeleteI also agree that this form of technology can save time for teachers over a term, particularly, as you alluded to, by allowing students the opportunity to review the material at their own time and place. Allowing a student to learn how to learn (higher order of thinking) is essential to their future.
I also experienced the same issues as you. As I previously stated, I agree that this form of technology will be extremely useful; however, believe that this may not be the ideal program to perform the task effectively. Considering the thousands of high quality PowerPoint presentations available on the net, there has to be a better way; although, it may come at a small cost. When I find a suitable source I will post it to my blog and share it with others.
I like your blog and hope you continue to expand upon it.
Kindest regards
Peter Spencer
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback and encouragement! I will keep my eyes peeled to your blog to see if you discover a better program for uploading powerpoints. I thought the losses of animation, links etc. were just an unavoidable occurrence when the file is being converted. Obviously you don't get nothing for nothing!
I have been enjoying your blog and comments on the forums as well. Your comments always seem to hit the nail right on the head. Were you aware that your blog is only accessible for comments from your team members? I went to post a comment last night and wasn't able to. I just thought I should mention this as my blog was inaccessible to other students too, until I was made aware of the fact, and changed the settings.
Cheers
Meryl
Hi Meryl,
ReplyDeleteYour a champion. Try leaving a comment on my blog if you like. I was not aware that I had restricted comments to only members.
Thank you and kindest regards,
Peter Spencer
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! I will go back in and try again.
Thanks
Meryl
Hi Meryl,
ReplyDeleteWith using SlideShare to upload presentations is in some ways useful but I found it's not the best as with all the work that is put into some presentation doesn't seem to show when uploaded through SlideShare. The reason I found this was when I completed my PowerPoint presentation I was trying to find a way to upload it to my Blog and I came across SlideShare. This was before I seen it was in our week 7 of learning. Therefore with using this yes it was quick and easy but I found the most disappointing part was that I had animations and sound effects which just went unnoticed. Therefore not allowing any viewers to experience the full quality of the designed presentation and leaving my presentation looking very plain and boring. But this is only my opion and think that if you are just wanting to upload a ordinary file with know animations ect, then SlideShare is a great program to do so in and children will be able to use this program with ease.
Hi Bec,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. Slideshare would be very useful for simple presentations where there are no animations, YouTube links etc.
Another feature Slideshare erased from my powerpoint was colour. One of my slides was very eyecatching and when Slideshare converted my powerpoint file the colours were also erased. It is a shame this happens but the text, was unaffected and therefore the key points of the presentation were still apparent. I am sure we can overcome these obstacles by making other areas of our presentation more appealing. For instance I ran a couple of memory games during my presentation (using a couple of the memory strategies outlined in the presentation), which the other students seem to really enjoy.
If I am using Slideshare in the future, I would make sure that any YouTube video links associated with the uploaded powerpoint were separately noted in a text box so that students could click on the links and still access the videos as well.