Google Presenter

This week, I explored Google Presenter. I started with a basic presentation and selected a theme for the slides. I noticed that there were not many choices for themes. However, you can import your own images and use them as a background and choose which slides to apply them to. I felt that the interface was relatively user friendly and not too overwhelming. The functions that makes this tool most attractive is that it is in the cloud. This opens a whole new element to access and storage of the document. Also, you can import slides from PowerPoint or Keynote. This function would be very helpful for putting together a cohesive final product where multiple users and programs have been utilized.

Google Presenter in the Classroom

In order for a user to be immediately successful, he or she would have to have some background knowledge of either a word processor or other presenter tools. However, if the learner was just beginning, I think it would be a manageable tool to use because it is not as overwhelming of an interface to start with as PowerPoint might be.

Sharing with Google Presenter offers many choices. You can create a presentation and share by sending it to others as an attachment. You can also publish the document and "View Together" by sending the URL to users to view and, sometimes, even edit. The viewing takes place online and can be done from anywhere with Internet access. The disadvantage, however, is the publishing feature. If you are creating a presentation that you plan to share anyway, this feature is not bothersome. However, maybe you are presenting a new idea or research findings that you do not want anyone else taking credit for. In this case, publishing it would be a bad idea. It then becomes available for anyone to view. In addition, if the "owner" or creator deletes a presentation that you had edited or wanted, he or she has the option to delete it from everyone's account. There is an option for transferring ownership of the presentation if someone wishes to get rid of it. However, this could be a situational disadvantage. You can also download or print the presentations.

One big benefit of this tool in education to teach subject matter could be a jigsaw approach to learning. A teacher could assign particular parts of a subject to individuals and then have them collaborate with their groups to create a final product. To help students, teachers could first demonstrate through a class collaboration/sharing before sending off small groups to do the same. This is definitely a tool that would require scaffolding as it has many elements that are not necessarily designed to be used/learned all at once.

One major managerial consideration for the teacher to take into account is the monitoring and creating of Google accounts. As I teach in the elementary setting, I can see where there would be a lot of concern with students having their own accounts. A solution to this might be creating "James Bond" type group accounts where users are given "alias" usernames and passwords by the teacher. This way, the teacher could view the accounts, if necessary, and monitor activity. One of the benefits of Google Presenter (and Google Docs) is the autosave feature. At the top of each new editing session, there is a save button (in case you need that extra reassurance) and next to it a time stamp that indicates when the last autosave took place. This is a tremendous help to the teacher because it helps the avoidance of "I lost it all!" situations.

Finally, the last thing to consider about Google Presenter is the continuous update of the software. Google is known for its continuous "renovation" of current applications. This would require that the teacher/school stays on top of browser updates and settings changes. Currently, Google Docs is being reworked to include more collaborative features and to allow for the uploading of larger files. At this time, while it is accessible for current Google users, the new version does not have all the features of the current version. Google cautions users to preview the features before changing their settings. Again, this would be an organizational and managerial task for the teacher to consider and stay on top of.

Overall, Google Presenter presents itself as a useful tool that compares to PowerPoint. The benefit of this tool, however, is that work can be done on the Internet allowing for easier access, storage and electronic sharing of files. Also, Google Gears has been developed to allow users access to their documents when there is not Internet access. There are also many more collaborative capabilities than PowerPoint. On the downside, it poses some security and management challenges for the teacher when students have their own accounts (especially for younger children). Also, when an Internet connection is unavailable, all collaborative features become ineffective. Finally, this application also requires the teacher or school (or family for home access) to stay on top of updates in browsers and settings so that all tools can be utilized (which we hope is done anyway, but let's face it- it is not always the case!). So we have to wonder: do the benefits outweigh the challenges? As with most innovations, I say "Let's give it a try!".