While browsing Web 2.0 site to use in my classroom I came across Slide.com. What is it, you ask? Well, it a program that helps you to make your own custom slideshows online and publish them to any website. I have always tended to use PowerPoint in my classroom, but after discovering Web 2.0 sites, this is now the way I prefer to go; especially since the sites save and publish work for the students!
As previously stated, for video slideshows I have been prone to use PowerPoint or Animoto.com. But Slide.com has one feature that Animoto does not; the room for text (more than just a few words) to appear! One feature that has always bothered me with Animoto is that there is such little room allowed for text. In the video posted in a previous blog (using Animoto) I really was forced to cut back my text entry. Being an English teacher, I find this extremely frustrating when students cannot put in an entire quote (or sentence for that matter). In my Contemporary Literature class we do a photo essay using one of these projects, and it is very important that quotes can be entered and cited correctly in their entirety.
So, if you’re wondering how to create a pretty neat slideshow with your travel photos, family photos, or anything really, Slide.com will allow you to do it very quickly and easily. I signed up for a new account and had my slideshow completed in less than 5 minutes. Granted, I only uploaded 7 photos, but it was enough to get the idea. The interface is fairly intuitive, along with the navigation. All the buttons are bright and shiny so it is difficult to get lost. The site also allows you to customize the look and theme of your slideshows, from having tiny bubbling hearts drift by, to lightning forking up the sides of the photos.
Even more remarkable are the re-sizing options, and the ability to embed the player in almost all social networking websites, like MySpace, Facebook, and more. You can also upload the photos directly from your photo albums on these other websites, or upload them from your computer, or even directly reference a photo anywhere online through the URL.
The only blatant problem I saw was the interface lacked a few vital buttons when viewed in Firefox. (I am sure Slide.com will fix that shortly, as Firefox is the fastest growing browser in the world). Also, something else that was a bit annoying was the speed of the presentations. Though you can set the speeds, the slow is not very slow at all. What seemed to make more if a difference regarding speed, was the designs chosen by my students. This time around I have only a few that they can choose from. Lastly, I couldn’t find any privacy settings to set my photos as private only — though the option may just be hiding.
With a super easy set-up, clean interface and multiple transition and theme options, I believe Slide.com seems to be among the most popular tools for self-expression on the web today! Check out what I created for my yearbook class for next school year!
Slide.com looks great and seems easy to use. I think it would be great to use in my classroom.
ReplyDeleteOne way to put text on a slide for Animoto is to put the text on the slide with an image editor, flatten the image and save the file. Animoto is used by the photographic community to tell a story and create a mood for the story by adding music. Most photographers would prefer text not be on their carefully composed images, but if you plan ahead like I mentioned above, you can control that option. You can also create an action in Photoshop that lets you add white space to your images in a batch, which then creates the perfect space to add text. I helped a professor do that once to the text would not be separated from the image when posted to a website.
ReplyDeleteGreat pros for Slide.com thanks for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteGlanda - Thanks so much foe the info! Great news1
ReplyDeleteGreat info J.D. I have used Slide.com myself, but never used it as a class project. I think you may have inspired me...
ReplyDeleteThis is great! I've heard and seen this in action but never use it myself. Like the flashing/paparazzi kind of theme :)
ReplyDelete