There are many different apps you can use to create slideshows on your device. A friend, @rafranzdavis (great follow on Twitter by the way), led me to Haiku Deck. It is a free, simple option for both you and your students.
After giving your Haiku Deck a title, you are able to jump right in and start creating. The user interface is straight forward and easy to manipulate.
Your first step is to choose a theme. There are 6 free themes to choose from. More are available for a price, but for the most part you will be happy with what is available for free.
Once you have chosen your theme it is time to start adding content. You can add in any order you wish. My personal preference is to start by adding an image first. You can add images from your camera roll or search for images straight from the app. This is a great feature! The app searches through creative commons photos to keep you from having to worry about copyright issues. You are also able to add a chart as well and input your information straight into it. The only hang up I found with adding images was that when choosing images it is much easier to work with landscape photos rather than portrait. The app wants to fill the entire slide with an image so you are magnifying and moving a portrait image to fit. You tend to lose some of your photo. You will want to keep this in mind especially if you are using your own images.
Next, I would add text to my slide. You can choose from title type slides to bullet points. I do like that the app limits the amount of text you can have on a screen. Too often, students and teachers alike are too wordy in a presentation. This will help keep it short and sweet. There are not a lot of options available to you here, but I am a fan of this. We tend to get too focused on the font, color, etc. Limiting our choices keeps you focused more on the content.
After adding the text you can choose your text layout. There are multiple options that allow you to move the text to different areas of the image. You can choose which is least intrusive.
Finally, you can add notes to your presentation. You can choose to make the notes private or public. Setting your notes as private allows only you to see them when presenting by holding your iPad in portrait mode. Making your notes public allows anyone viewing your presentation from the web to see the notes to the right of the presentation. It is a good place to add extra information or addresses to sites that can be used for reference or more information.
This will allow your students to access from virtually anywhere! Provide students with study information for a test. Let them share their knowledge with the world. Brag about your students to parents and the community. There are many ways this can be incorporated into your classroom. Find some great ideas and examples on this Haiku Deck Pinterest Board.
Find below a link to my first official Haiku Deck. It highlights my family’s vacation this summer where we visited multiple National Parks. I hope you enjoy it!
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