Present.me - Great Presentation tool

What is Present.me?

Present.me (https://present.me/) is a web program that enables you to create your presentation with your slides and webcam recording. You can upload your presentation (ppt., pptx., or pdf.) and add a narrative with the aid of webcam and microphone. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How to use  Present.me?

• Sign up for free account 

• Fill out form 

• Log in with your own account 

• Start to record your presentation 

       - Start to record 
       - End and review 
       - Publish 
       - Upload your presentation (ppt,pptx,or pdf)
          
        
 Here is a video from YouTube presenting how to use Present.me:

Here is my presentation by using Present.me:

 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Present.me in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teachers can provide their additional tutorial materials through Present.me and send it to their students. Teachers can make the presentation as if they are facing students in the real classroom. Before recording the presentation, teachers can also prepare a whiteboard to write on to show important notes to students.

• Teachers can give specific topics to students and ask them to present their PowerPoint with Present.me. It is just like a real presentation but students don't need to stand in front of their classmates and reduce the speaking nervousness. By making presentation with Present.me, students would become more engaged and be more aware of their body languages and eye-contact. 

• Before teaching a new lesson, teachers can provide students a task to make a presentation with Present.me concerning the new topic of the lesson in order to elicit students' schemata and scaffold their ideas. At the end of the lesson, teachers demand students provide feedback and review the previous lessons by making the presentation.

• Both teachers and students can share useful resources with Present.me. In the recording with their PowerPoint or PDF file, they can explain the importance of the file and explain some questions for the audiences. 

• Present.me could be regarded as e-portfolio for record and assessment. Both teachers and students can create their own portfolio to store their work (PowerPoints or PDF) and their presentation. After a period of time, they can compare their former work and recent ones to analyse their differences as well as advantages and disadvantages. They can learn from their mistakes as well. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benefits of Present.me

• You can add a narrative to your presentation. In the Present.me presentation, you can see the eye-contact, facial expression and body language of the presenter. 

• Present.me provides more opportunities for presenters to practice their speaking skill. 

• Completed presentation can be shared.

• When rehearsing  the presentation with Present.me, presenters can analyse the completed presentation (observing their pronunciation, body language, eye-contact, etc.) and manage to improve future performance. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Limitations

• Limited service for free plan.

• Presenter might feel nervous before the webcam. 

• Video recording might distract audience from the content of the presentation. 

• Presentation cannot show the flash of the original PowerPoint and cannot hide the ongoing content.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading

• Present.me -  Free Technology for Teachers

          http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/05/presentme.html#.UR1Hy7KBUxU

Wallwisher - A "Magic" Wall for Collaborative Learning

What is Wallwisher

Wallwisher (www.wallwisher.com) is a free online program enabling user to create a "wall" and add information (e.g. texts, images, videos, maps, slideshows, documents, links, etc.). It is an excellent tool for collaborative learning.

How to use Wallwisher?

• Here is the Wallwisher blog for tips and updates: http://blog.wallwisher.com/
• If you need any technical help, you can write to Wallwisher at hello@wallwisher.com
• Here is my Wallwisher cooperated with my classmates Johnathan, East and Karen http://wallwisher.com/wall/russellmadrid

Wallwisher in Language Teaching and Learning

• In a new class, it is difficult to remember all the students' or classmates' names in a short time. In order to promote interaction between teacher and students, students and students, ice-breaker activities are of great importance. Teachers can create a "wall" using Wallwisher and invite students to post their names and introduction onto the wall to present themselves in the respects of personal interest, favorite color, sports, movies, etc.

• Before a new unit, teachers can post background information of the lesson on the Wallwisher and send the link to their students for preparation. In this process, students can be invited to add their ideas on the topics as well. After finishing the lesson, teachers can post additional materials on the wall for learners with higher ability. Learners can be invited to post their questions on the lessons or language on the wall. Teachers and other learners can facilitate to answer questions.

• In the language classroom, teachers can create tasks for students, e.g. introducing hometown, experience of traveling, family, etc. and students work in pair or group to collect and organize their information with Wallwisher and use it to present their work to the class. With Wallwisher, students can add texts, photos, videos, slideshows, and websites to make their work more elaborated and dynamic.

• Teachers can utilize Wallwisher to collect feedback and comments from their students on their teaching and lessons. For example, talking about problems they have and what kinds of activities they would like to include in the classroom.

• Wallwisher can serve as a public notice board for the class out of the class. Students are encouraged to leave their messages and make comments in target language.

• Wallwisher can also be regarded as a sharing board for learners. They can post new vocabulary they learn from exercises or additional materials and share it with classmates. For example, a student post the new word "philosophy" and its meaning and usage on the wall. Other students can add more information of the new vocabulary, like in which context can we use "philosophy", discussion on the construction of the word (prefix, root and suffix) and other words with the same or similar prefix and suffix. Furthermore, students can introduce their favorite books, articles, music, operas, movies, etc and share their reviews with Wallwisher. In this respect, students' motivation and interest would be increased and they would be encouraged to autonomous learning.

• In some schools, teachers need to plan their lessons together with their colleges. With the application of Wallwisher, teachers can share their ideas of the lessons and useful resources for the lessons. Additionally, they can discuss questions and problems in the Wallwisher and provide solutions for the them. In this way, it would encourage collaborative wisdom of teaching and especially benefit the less experienced teachers.

Benefits of Wallwisher

• Good for collaborative learning and brainstorm in the language classroom.

• Pictures, videos, websites, slideshows, documents, maps, links, etc. are addable in the Wallwisher to elaborate ideas and opinions.

• Increase the engagement of students in the classroom.

• A good place to share useful resources in learning and teaching language.

• Easy operation and simple interface.

Limitations

• Not suitable for large class (more than 25 students). If so many students post their messages on the wall in the same time, the wall might become messy and important messages might be ignored. Meanwhile, it would become difficult to manage the messages.

• Time-consuming.

• When too many people are using the same wall in the same time, it would become quite difficult and slow to edit the messages and post pictures and videos due to the Internet speed.

• It is quite difficult the design the framework of your own wall. Sometimes you may not satisfy with the sizes and position of your messages. You can not enter precise numbers and edit sizes nd position of messages.

Further Reading

• Using Wallwisher in the Classroom

          http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/10/using-wall-wisher-in-classroom.html?m=1

Tricider - Collecting Ideas Tool

What is Tricider?

Tricider (https://tricider.com/) is an interactive web application for discussion, brainstorming and voting.  Users can post questions in the Tricider and invite friends, colleges or clients to express their ideas and opinions in the website. 

Simple Steps to Use Tricider

1. Navigate to Tricider (https://tricider.com/)                

2. Enter your question in the text box and press Go.

3. Send the unique URL to invite others to add ideas and comments.   

4. Read and analyse the ideas.

5. Make comments or vote for the ideas.

How to Use Tricider in Language Teaching and Learning

• Teacher can post questions in the Tricider and invite students to give answers and ideas. In this process, students can exchange their ideas and opinions with each other and learn from good views provided by peer. 

• When received collaborative task, students can discuss their task in the Tricider. They can brainstorm for good ideasand vote for the best solutions for the task. 

• Teachers can collect students' feedback on their lessons and teaching via Tricider. Students will feel free to provide their questions and their ideas for improving teachers' teaching. Based on students' opinions, teachers can draw on them and make reflective writing in order to improve their teaching practice in the classroom. 

Benefits of Tricider in Language Classroom

• A wonderful tool for eliciting and collecting ideas
  
  
• Good for interactive and collaborative activities and brainstorming

• Pros and cons comments are provided to show agreement or disagreement  

• No time and place limitations  (You can add your ideas any time any where)


• No registration and free


• Simple interface and operation 

Limitations

• Irrelevant comments might be provided without clear instruction.


• Some participants might stop innovative thinking and plagiarize others' results.


• No privacy for the content of discussion in Tricider (Passwords are not required).

Further Reading

• TeacherTrainingVideos - Free online tutorial for using Tricider                                                                                                                      

          http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/tricider/index.html

• How To Brainstorm The Fun Way With Tricider

          http://www.fractuslearning.com/2011/12/05/how-to-brainstorm-with-tricider/

• Perfect Decision Making in Teams

         http://www.dailywebapps.com/tricider-com-perfect-decision-making-in-teams/

• Crowdsourcing Knowledge with Students by  Nik Peachey

          http://nikpeachey.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/crowdsourcing-knowledge-with-students.html

• How do you keep developing your teaching?

     https://tricider.com/en/brainstorming/NmxE?wicket:pageMapName=wicket-5


powered by tricider