Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Boy, there sure are a lot of web applications that let you make free slideshows. Because of this glut, I thought it would be helpful to my students, readers of this blog, and me to do a quick review of many of them, and identify my picks for the best ones. So, here’s another “The Best…” list.

In order to make it on this list (there is one exception), a site had to…

* be free.

* be simple. There are a number of web tools that just have too many “bells and whistles” for me, and they certainly don’t improve accessibility for English Language Learners.

* allow you to grab images off the Web, and not just from your computer.

* not have content inappropriate for classroom use readily available, at least not during the multiple times I visited the site.

* allow for the creation of captions and other writing.

I’ve come up with nine web tools that I think are worthy of being on this list. They all have some unique qualities, though, that make them ideal for different projects. So they are not ranked first-to-ninth. Instead, I’ve put them into different categories.

AUDIO-NARRATED SLIDESHOWS

Having said that I wasn’t going to rank the sites, however, it’s clear that one site is clearly the best, especially for English Language Learners. The ability to combine audio narration (and comments) with the written word at VoiceThread , along with its ease-of-use, make this a great application. Combine that with the special free educator membership and its benefits and you have the best site out there, period, for English Language Learners.

You can see a lot of samples at our Student Showcase blog, where Intermediate English students from various countries created VoiceThreads.

Just FYI, at our school we’ve been having a problem logging-in the regular way recently at VoiceThread. However, we can also log-in easily here. (Thanks to Alice Mercer for that tip!)

And since, for English Language Learners, having that audio component trumps other special effects, Show Beyond is another option if you can’t access VoiceThread for some reason. It’s not as easy to use as VoiceThread, and doesn’t allow you to leave audio comments, but it’s certainly accessible to English Language Learners.

You can easily embed slideshows from VoiceThread and Show Beyond into an online journal, website or blog. You can also just post the link to your creation.

SITES THAT DON’T REQUIRE REGISTRATION

There are several slideshow creation sites that don’t require you to register and still meet all my criteria. I think for most classes, if you don’t need the audio narration feature and you’re okay just posting a link instead of embedding the show in a blog or website, these should work fine.

Bookr is another great tool for anybody, including Beginning English Language Learners. You just type in a “tag” to search Flickr for images, drag them into a book and write about them. Here are samples made by my students.

Big Huge Labs is a site that lets you grab any image off the web — not just Flickr. The interface is not as easy as Bookr’s, but you do have access to far more images.

And, for the very Beginning English Language Learner, there’s the Colgate Smile Slideshow. You just drag-and-drop from a small number of images, and then do the same for captions. This would also be a good introductory activity for younger native English speakers, too.

(Editor’s Note: I’m adding Rock You to this list, too.)

A SITE WITH A FEW BELLS & WHISTLES

Magtoo is a newer site that has a number of features like being able to add music, show your slides in a variety of formats, and even create panoramas. But even with these extra features, it still seems pretty simple to use. Plus, you can embed your slideshow on a blog or website.

You might also want to check out 280 Slides. You can read my post about it here.

SITES WITH A FEW BELLS & WHISTLES — PLUS THEY LET YOU COLLABORATE

There are two sites in particular that, like Magtoo, have a few easily usable bells and whistles, can be embedded, and let you create slideshows with others over the Internet (not in real-time, though). I was attracted to them because of the collaboration feature and the possibilities of using them with our international sister classes, but they are also excellent sites to use without taking advantage of that aspect of the site.

One is Mixbook, which I think is very accessible (though I wish their tool to write text was a little bit better). Fliptrack is the other site worth considering.

(Note: Fliptrack just changed its name to Moblying and appears to be even better now)

A SITE WITH A HISTORY FOCUS

Digital Vaults from the National Archives has an incredibly easy-to-use tool to create online slideshows related to history. You can access images from historical time periods and easily drag-and-drop them into your show, along with writing captions. It’s just one feature of this extraordinary site.

All feedback on this list is welcome.

You can find links to these sites, and to many more slideshow creators, on my website under Student Slideshows.

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