Slide Share

Here is a presentation made by Slide Share explaining it's purpose... Click through to see how it works!

I stumbled upon Slide Share when browsing the list of Web 2.0 Resources provided by Don.  At first, I didn't really see it's purpose for a classroom, as students or teachers who create PowerPoints have so many avenues to share them so they're accessible to present.  I was thinking solely on ways to store the PowerPoint so that they're easily able to pull them up on the computer to present - email, flashdrive, CD, etc.  However, I didn't think about the power of sharing the information for others to explore.  This could have great benefit in the classroom.

The main benefit would be to learn from the presentations made by others - not to publish your own or to view those by your classmates.  Although, of course, that would be doable on this site.  I found though, that I could learn so much by reading the presentations made by others - and my students could do the same.  I began reading the presentation on the homepage - the one seen above about the plane crash at SFO.  It was so fascinating - information that I've never heard about!  It was about the power of social media in moments of crises.  It explored the timelines of posts made on the internet - from the first pictures posted by a lady in the airport who saw it happen to the SFO airport's tweets and the lack of information from Asiana Airlines.  This information was so interesting, and would be difficult to explain in a basic online article.  The presentation, with its charts, and screen shots of online posts really added to the validity of the information, and created a visual that helped the reader grasp the message.  Of course, this is the power of visual presentations like PowerPoint.  But when shared online, for the public to view, it becomes a sufficient tool for information gathering.  And that is how it can be used by students!

Like online encyclopedias, news sources, or youtube videos, my students could use this website as a way to gather research and understand a concept more fully.  It may not have the same validity as the news - like we find with Wikipedia - but it would be a great way for students to see information presented in a more visual fashion.  Say my 5th grade class is learning about presidential elections.  In this day and age, social media plays a huge role in the success of a campaign.  I search "Obama" and several PowerPoint presentations provide me with the resources about how Obama's online campaign changed the way we experience presidential elections.  My students could browse these presentations and gain a new perspective not found in many textbooks.

AUDIENCE: Students for research and internet information seeking.  Teachers for creative ways to present information (made by someone else).  Students and teachers to share their own PowerPoint creations.

PURPOSE:  Share PowerPoint presentations.  Browse PowerPoints created by other people.

USABILITY:  Easy as a click of a button.  Watch the presentations like you would your own.  Search for topics like you would on any search engine.  Pretty sweet.