Interactive Classroom Presentation Tools

In case you haven't heard, the old model of the classroom lecture is changing. Teachers are no longer required to broadcast information like a television station. In fact, more interaction is a great thing! How can you create more interactive presentations? Here are some ideas:

Sign Up for Presentation.io

I have several computers and iPads in my room and wanted a way to share a presentation with my students on their computer screens. Doing this used to mean purchasing expensive software that doesn't work half the time. Now there is a free alternative called Presentation.io, which allows you to make a live presentation, sharing slides and all, on any device in real time. The best part is that it is free.

I tried it the other day and was amazed at how easy it was to use. I was able to upload my presentation in the form of  a Word Document, PDF, or PowerPoint and then presto! I could share a link via email or through a unique URL, which students accessed on my Edmodo page. As we went through the presentation, my students were able to post comments and chat about each slide. It was a great way to provide excellent classroom discussion in a unique 21st century way. We could even keep the presentation and notes for up to  48 hours in the free version.

Create YouTube Quizzes

Want a way to engage your students and assess them at the same time? You could use Blubbr.tv as a way to create "trivs" or YouTube quizzes, where you can embed quizzes into YouTube videos. There are hundreds of pre-made "trivs" available for your browsing pleasure or you can create your own.

How do you do it? When you sign up for your free Blubbr account, you will have to create a name for your "triv." After you have come up with a name, you can search YouTube for your perfect clip. I am currently teaching financial literacy concepts to my Accounting classes, so I though that I would create a clip from my old "Mr. Bergman's Money Minute" videos on YouTube. I created several multiple choice questions to strategically place within my video clips,  for my students to answer during the presentation. When I was done, I shared my "triv" with my students and they got to compete to see who had the best score!