Power Point Repositories - in other words Free Power Points

Jefferson County Schools - Library use, Math, Science, Social Studies, the Arts

Slide Share - the YouTube of Power Point. Use the search engine to find a presentation.

Voice Thread - combine audio with visual presentations - Browse or search presentations.

Sharing a Power Point to the Web

When someone says they have a Power Point file, sometimes they mean they have a file made in a presentation-type of software but it could be a different version. Most schools are bombarded with different types of presentations made in Microsoft Office 97, 2000, 2003, 2007, or 2008.

Outside of Power Point, there is Mac's Keynote software and Open Office's Impress or Presenter.

So imagine a teacher only having one version of software to access and a host of different types of presentations coming in. It is a frustrating scenario!!

The best alternative to keep this frustration at bay is to have students upload their presentations to a website which converts the files. Converting it to web means it can be opened over the Internet regardless of the version of presentation tool.

Presentation Web Resources

Slide Share - Slide Share is what I consider to be the YouTube of presentations. You create an account and you can upload a presentation to this site. The presentation is converted into a Flash file (and you lose your animations). You can then email a link to whomever needs to view the presentation. With Web 2.0 tools, your Power Points can receive comments from the community online and stars for ratings.

Voice Thread - Voice Thread allows users to not only upload a presentation but he/she can also record their voice to each slide. It is collaborative as well because you can allow others to post comments either by text or by voice to each slide as well.

VoiceThread Wiki - this is a site linking various VoiceThread projects by grade level.

Google Presentations - Google Presentations also allows users to upload or create a presentation from scratch. Within the last week of June, Google announced new themes and templates in their Google Document system for educators. This is a mighty plus as well. Google also recently incorporated the use of voice recording on their slides as well.

FREE Alternatives to Power Point

1. Open Office is a FREE version of similar tools found in Microsoft Office. There is a document tool, spreadsheet system, database tools, a paint tool, and a presentation tool. It is the most similar to Microsoft Office with about the same quality.

2. Google Documents is also a FREE way to use similar tools found in Office. The major difference here is that there is no software. You create an online account and can use Google Documents, Google Presenter, and Google Spreadsheets. The best feature beyond just the simplicity of Google is the ability to collaborate (share access) with others in real-live time. You can work on the same document with others at the same time. Google Documents also keeps a revision history so you can view a timeline of the history of the documents and go "back in time" should you need a different version than the current one.

Files in Google Documents can be Exported and Imported between Microsoft Office and PDF formats.

3. Zoho is another FREE online office tool. They have more business applications include Project Management tools and online resources for startups. Just like Google, Zoho offers online collaboration.

4. Buzzword is Adobe's FREE version of online document creation and collaboration. It offers many of the similar ideas of Google and Zoho where you can create and share work online. It also keeps a revision history of the documents. A new feature in Buzzword is the ability to comment or annotate on the document and to share notes that way.