Thing 20: Slideshare (with a bit of Prezi thrown in)

Well the end is now in sight as I begin my posts for my final week of 'things' (although I am still behind schedule at this point!). I have some familiarity with Slideshare but have never really explored it in any depth. As I have left my studying days behind me (although never say never!), I don't really have the use for this kind of software, although there may come a time when I need to use it so getting to grips with it seems like a valuable exercise. If Slideshare was just about presentations then I would favour Prezi which offers a very dynamic experience where you can zoom in and out of presentation media. In fact here is a Prezzi presentation I made myself about The Killing. This is particularly for those people who still think Sarah Lund actually works somewhere in one of the UoS Libraries.....

Back to Slideshare then, which not only hosts presentations, but also documents, PDFs and videos. It has been described as one of the top tools for learning so I spoke to my husband who is a teacher, about it since he uses it quite regularly in his classes.  He pointed out that it as useful to him as a research tool as it is for his students who find it quite straightforward to work with. Comparing it to Prezi though, students find it less appealing as it clearly lacks Prezi's dynamism and interactive features, only being a space to upload presentations rather than create them from scratch.  However, the major advantage of Slideshare is of course that you can use existing presentations or documents as templates and add your own material to them - or 'remix' as Slideshare refers to this practice as. 

I chose one of Phil Bradley's presentations to embed into this blog, and it is just one of many he has created discussing the relationship between libraries and social media. Although very basic in appearance and not especially 'polished,' it does hold a lot of information (perhaps too much?? I found myself tiring a bit around slide number 40....).

   

Why librarians must use social media from Phil Bradley

In conclusion, I think if I am looking for a short presentation, with a bit of flair then I will stick to Prezi, however if I am after tools for educational purposes then I am more likely to go to Slideshare for research. There is a lot going on in this site and unfortunately I have not had the time to explore it in any detail. I will certainly return to Slideshare in the future to see what else it has to offer me.....