Presentations & Astronaut Abby

Use PowerPoint and are just tired of the same old features? Lucky for you there are plenty of upgraded forms of presentations to use for school or even in your presentation at your businesses. Here are 4 helpful tools that could help create a unique presentation.

1. Office Mix

PowerPoint has an updated feature to use called Office Mix, which is an add on for PowerPoint slides. You can easily download it free and sign up. What this feature includes is a new tab called "Mix". You can insert different things with this interesting feature such as voice input, do presentation on the web, embed audio. The table of context holds all of your slides which makes it that much better than the normal PowerPoint.

                                                                      2. Sway

Another interesting presentation cite is called Sway. Yes, it is also free and is web based as well. It is by Microsoft and what is so neat about Sway is that you can drag and drop anything into your presentation via pictures, videos, voice, music, etc. Mark Kaelin, explains how you can use this feature in so little time. Sway could also give you suggestions for what you are looking for. It combines all the tools needed so that it is easy to use. It is very intuitive. You are able to create a website within minutes of using it. He brings up a good point about having Office 365. If you have this, then you have Sway. Also, because we are living in such a high tech society, we are learning that we will be able to communicate with other workers through this digital technology.

                                                                      3. Haiku Deck

The third presentation tool you could use, that I enjoyed also is Haiku Deck. This is a presentation where you should not exceed no more than 5 bullet points on each slide. This really gets your presentation skills up to par because it is mostly picture based. You are the presentation. No one wants to read off the presentation the same thing you are explaining to them because that is defeating the purpose of a presentation. You want the audience to focus on you not so much on the presentation. Here is a link to my first Haiku Deck presentation about what I plan to do on spring break. 

                                                                      4. GoAnimate

Lastly, I would like to talk to you about GoAnimate. I have to say I just used this one for the first time to actually create a commercial for my class. It was a little confusing at first, but once I started to mess with it's features a lot more I began to get really creative with it and have a lot of fun with it as well. Here is a link to my first commercial. Check it out! This is a great website that really gets to show your creativity skills. I say this because there are not many words, it is mostly picture based similarly to Haiku Deck. However, it is animated! Therefore, if you want to add wording you would have to insert a text box for it. You are the presentation. It is also free and you can put a time limit on there. That way you know if you have a Professor who requires you to present in 5-7 minutes, this helps you do just that. 

Rachael Moore goes more in depth about GoAnimate. It is a fun way to turn your story into an animated video. They use so many templates, designs, colors, texts, fonts, characters, music and even languages. There is so much built into this website that are great to have. As I have posted my video onto my twitter account for others to see, you can send it to any of your social media accounts. It is a great tool to use for school, especially to help engage the interaction of the students and teachers. Plus it is school safe. There is nothing on this website that brings any form of negativity in education or bad influences to users which also makes it a fun and exciting experience to have. I definitely recommend this website if you ever want to create a commercial or even use as a presentation for your class or business!

Overall, there are several different forms of presentations to use for school or business uses. Jordana Pepper explains other presentations that would help to consider in the future are Powtoon, Prezi, Keynote, Prezentit, and SlideRocket.

Powtoon is good for those who are into comics and want to make a presentation that is comical. Similarly to Animoto, where you could create characters and use it to create a story to introduce yourself as learner. Plus you can add short animated clips to your presentation as well. Prezi, as explained before is pretty interesting in a way where it adds movement to your presentation. However, it is not recommended if you you get sick easily on a roller coaster as it deals with a lot of motion. Keynote is limited to what it can be accessed on  such as being used for only Mac users however, it is just as easy to use similarly to PowerPoint. Prezentit is similar to Prezi, without the motion. Yet, as simple as it is if you want great transitioning slides it is a great presentation tool for that alone. Lastly, Pepper talks about SlideRocket which seems interesting to me where unlike the others she had mentioned are free, this one is not. However, if you want a good quality based presentation it is a definitely great choice. 

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Astronaut Abby

I would like to talk to you about this amazing young woman venturing off to the Mars Generation which is a non profit organization, Astronaut Abby. She was a guest speaker in my class and has definitely brought great inspiration to not only myself but to everyone in the classroom. I say this because she is still a student just as she is an aspiration.  When she first started to talk about becoming an astronaut to her parents, at 5 years old, she thought that she was just a kid saying things that would sound a little out of range for us to think literally of. Yet, her mother was always there or her and had always gotten the support she needed in any case. As Abby grew older and become more educated about the galaxies and planets, it turned out that this is really what she wanted to do for a living and she was given continual support. Although she have had several other activities at hand to be a part of she was never alone. What I mean by this is that the support system Abby was given throughout her life, brought her to where she is at today. Her favorite quote, which I must say is also my favorite as well, is "If it is important to you, you will make time for it." 

Throughout this short visit, a few students had asked Abby questions so that we could learn more about her. One student had asked, "What type of Social Media was most beneficial to you?" and "What advice would you have using Social Media to develop your career?" She simply mentioned how social media impacts your life in a different way and Twitter had to have been one of the most useful sources. Check out her profile here. You are able to stay connected to professionals in a technical way. The most important thing is to realize what would be the most useful tool in determining how you want to find potential employers. She brought up an important aspect about social media that we should all take into consideration for and that is watching what you post if you various media accounts open. This could determine whether or not you get the job. 

Lastly, she left off with some powerful advice that I would love to also share with you and that is the 24 hour rule. If you meet someone in your related field of study and you have their business card-keep in contact with them 24 hours after you have met. Simply by saying " I'm glad to meet you, and I hope that we can keep in touch." This could show potential employers how interested and determined you are to be a part of their team!