The first presentation tool I explored was My Brain Shark. The description on the website states “With Brainshark’s cloud-based solution, you can easily transform static content such as PowerPoint® documents into voice-enriched online and mobile video presentations that can be accessed anytime, on-demand...and tracked so you can measure the effectiveness of your communications.” Thus far, I have found the program to be extremely user-friendly with great tutorials and step-by-step directions. Ironically, this is the same program that my district uses for training such as sexual harassment and blood-borne pathogens. I think that this would be an excellent tool for the Course Project seeing as you can upload any types of document, video, picture, or presentation. The voice-over tool helps make the presentation more dynamic without bombarding the audience with too much text like you may encounter in a PowerPoint presentation. The best part of this program is that it makes your presentation accessible to any device (iphone, ipad, smart phones, MAC OS, or Microsoft OS).
The other tool I experimented with is called Ahead. I found it to be almost identical to Prezi as both are non-linear maps of information. While I like the Ahead software for its ease of use, it is a Flash-based program which means that it will not play on Apple devices. Considering most of us are mobile and so many use Apple products, this could be a problem. Other than that, I think that this would be a good tool for the Course Project. Personally, I do not think that I will use it as I am a linear thinker. It is difficult for me to use and be comfortable with working on so many tangents. If you are a person who thinks in different directions, Ahead would probably work well for you.
