PowerPoint may be the king of slideshow software, but there are still many other options out there, most of which I like better. Quick list of a few of my top choices below.
Focusky
“The easiest way to create HTML5 presentations and animated videos.
- Professional looking results in just 5 minutes
- Infinite canvas & unlimited Zoom and Pan effect
- Smooth transition animation with 3D Camera.
- Tons of pre-designed templates and styles.
- Build-in animation tools with dynamic characters.
- Create, share, and present from anywhere.”
- Usability: Focusky can be intimidating at first. There are a plethora of options and can each presentation can be as complicated as one wants, however, using the built in templates it can also be incredibly easy to use. It is an entirely different interface than standard slideshow builders such as Powerpoint, but I do believe the learning curve is fairly easy for both students and teachers.
- Motivation: Teachers could use this software to create more interesting presentations. Presentations can include any media type, and because they run in HTML 5, they can be native online presentations. This makes is easy to embed on websites, blogs, and video. Students would use this to create more interactive presentations or mind maps.
- Pros: Highly creative and engaging presentations. Native to web applications. Available for web and desktop software for offline use.
- Cons: New software to learn. Pre-built themes are extra cost.
emaze
“emaze is the next generation of online presentation technology, enabling beautiful presentation design automatically. With more than 20M presentations created on the platform, emaze big-data and machine learning algorithms utilize crowd wisdom to re-design PowerPoint presentations into impressive storytelling. State of the art HTML5 technology enables the addition of gifs, media, live data, hyperlinking and more.”
- Usability: Emaze is very easy to use for both teachers and students. Emaze uses machine learning to automatically adapt Powerpoint presentations into impressive HTML 5 designs.
- Motivation: The ease of use is a motivation for both teachers and students. Emaze is also cross platfrom and can be used on mobile, tablet, and desktop systems.
- Pros: Automatic design. Cloud based for use anywhere. Automated translation tools. Ease of use.
- Cons: No offline support.
Prezi
“Prezi gives you unprecedented visual storytelling power, combining the freedom of an open canvas with spatial dimension and motion to keep audiences engaged as you guide them through your message.”
- Usability: Prezi is one of the most simple slide show software available online. The templates are easy and straightforward.
- Motivation: The simplicity of Prezi would motivate students and teachers alike to use Prezi. In order to create more engaging presentations. The ease in which videos can be embed from any source without any complications is a huge plus.
- Pros: Most of the Pro’s are available with the paid “PRO” Prezi account. These include: Charts, Offline Desktop apps, image editing, Privacy control and more templates.
- Cons: Very few options unless you pay for the PRO account.
Sway
“Go from start to finish in minutes. Sway makes it quick and easy to create and share polished, interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more. Add your content, and we’ll do the rest.”
- Usability: Sway is built by Microsoft as an alternative to their own PowerPoint. Sway is limited in options and features, but the features that it does pack are dead simple to use.
- Motivation: Easily transform old PowerPoints into interactive and well-designed presentations. The built in search and suggestion features make it crazy simple to add images and videos, among other content. Much more impressive looking than a PowerPoint and easier to use.
- Pros: Easily share online. Create online and offline. Simple presentations, reports, class newsletters.
- Cons: Lacks an easy to use copy and reorder slide feature. Not as full-fledged as PowerPoint.
Slidedog
“YOUR PRESENTATIONS – YOUR WAY, SEAMLESSLY: Say goodbye to traditional slide and bullet point presentations. With SlideDog you can combine almost any media into one seamless multimedia presentation”
- Usability: If you are able to use any other presentation software, Slidedog will be easy to use. It essentially combines files from all sources into one seamless presentations.
- Motivation: Most presentation software run into issues playing back videos, or have hiccups going back and forth between files formats. Slidedog takes this pain out of the equation by linking all files into seamless flow. If any student or teacher is wants a true “click-and-go” presentation, then Slidedog will do the trick.
- Pros: Creates playlists from almost all file types: Videos, Prezi presentations, Powerpoints, PDFs etc.
- Cons: Advanced features (which most people would need to use) are a bit pricey at $15 a month