Phototeach? Use PhotoPeach.

Sometime ago someone on my Twitter network posted a link to PhotoPeach which I looked at, book marked on delicious then thought nothing more of until this week. John Sutton (@HGJohn), an ICT Consultant working in Primary schools, blogged about his use of PhotoPeach pointing out that a group of Year 3  children ‘found the interface very easy to use and have been able to create slideshows entirely independently with the site’. So with that in mind I decided to give it a go and try it out in class.

I won’t go into how to use PhotoPeach in this post but just to tell you that it is incredibly easy to set up a slideshow which can also include a Quiz option. It’s so easy to use that after I demonstrated it and taught my class how to use it, they have been creating their own PhotoPeach slideshows without any guidance from me. Example 1, example 2, my own example based on a school trip.

3 of our senses on PhotoPeach

<object width=”445″ height=”326″><param name=”movie” value=”http://photopeach.com/public/swf/story.swf”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”/><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true”/><param name=”flashvars” value=”photos=http://photopeach.com%2Fapi%2Fgetphotos%3Falbum_id%3Dky8pbf&autoplay=0&embed=1″/><embed src=”http://photopeach.com/public/swf/story.swf” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”445″ height=”326″ flashvars=”photos=http://photopeach.com%2Fapi%2Fgetphotos%3Falbum_id%3Dky8pbf&autoplay=0&embed=1″></embed></object>

TeachMeet Gran Canaria 09

It was half past three; fifteen minutes before the first ever teachmeet to be held in the Canary islands and I was sitting in my classroom pondering whether or not to present the event or not.

Earlier that day I had been informed that due to a slight mixup in dates someone had inadvertently set up a Secondary Teachers meeting at the same time and day as tmgc’09 and would leave attendance for it decimated. Would I give in and shout expletives and trudge to my car swearing? Not a chance.

Using Prezi as a lesson starter

Prezi is an amazing online presentation tool that makes creating dynamic presentations very easy. I’ve only found out about this tool and I’m posting a rather quickly created Myst presentation for a lesson introduction tomorrow but I’m very impressed with it’s capabilities.

Some other uses for Prezi in the classroom

• Story boards – include children’s own drawings, video work, written ideas
• Lesson introductions on any topic if you have the time to create it
• Mind mapping ideas with small groups or as a whole class activity
• Instructions
• Directions
• Explanations
• Recounts that come alive

There are no doubt many more so feel free to leave your ideas in the comments. Have you used Prezi? What do you think about it?

Myst V – What we have found out so far (Prezi presentation)