Presenting on Zoom (2021 Summer edition)

Over this past 18 months we've learnt a lot about presenting online and with teachers changing schools, going online, having to do Hyflex learning etc I thought I'd share what I've learnt about the various ways you can present and the advantages and disadvantages of each.  I've pretty much tried them all as far as I can tell and they all come with pros and cons!

Consider Recording Your Presentations

When I first started teaching online, I found it much easier to record my presentations and share them via Youtube. There are lots of screen-recording options including Loom that is incredible and free for educators and I'd use it as a free option.  I actually use Camtasia, (10% discount link thanks to FlippedClassroom)  because I have a license and am incredibly comfortable with it.  If you have budget for it and plan to make a lot of videos this is well worth the money and is what most streamers use. Don't forget Keynote and PowerPoint enable you to record videos directly in the app. PowerPoint even has a coaching function!

Once you've recorded your video, you can then upload it to youtube and it can be watched on pretty much any device.  You can also use Edpuzzle, TED Lessons or put into a Google Form. to add formative assessment.

During the lesson you can simply ask students to watch the video and they are much more likely to be able to watch it in the quality you wanted it with the animations fully in-tact.  It also means you can answer questions in the chat as students watch. 

I do not recommend screensharing videos EVER! I have NOT once experienced a video shared on-screen that matches the quality of Youtube. Much better to give them the link & let students play or if you need to check put it into Edpuzzle with some questions.  Too many teachers think what they see on their screen is what can be seen by the student.

No Animations Required

Zoom recently introduced a presentation mode. This is great, because it appears in your camera with you conveniently placed on your slides. You don't even need a green screen for you to be cut out.

If you feel this doesn't quite do what you want and you want something a bit more advanced then mmhmm gives you a lot of flexibility and Prezi video gives you a really dynamic feeling to your presentation. Both are giving free subscriptions to educators.  They also enable you to record your presentations in advance in an attractive format.

Presenting in a window (Need animations)

If you need animations then chances are you will want to use PowerPoint of Keynote.  Both now have a present in a window option. This means you will be able to see your presentation and the students in zoom.

Keynote presentation in a window

PowerPoint presentation in a window

Peardeck (Interactive Presentations)

Our school has a license to peardeck and it has been incredibly useful to help us make our presentations fully interactive. If you are inside the European Union, please check privacy policy for your country.  Nearpod & Quizizz both have some similar functions if you are looking for an alternative.

Peardeck will work with PowerPoint or Google Slides. However animations are tricky, but the tradeoff is that you can create really interactive slides with questions, links and videos inside the presentation. You can also choose to make it instructor or student paced. 

The real downside with Peardeck is that it really needs to be on a laptop for students to be able to comfortably access both Zoom and peardeck at the same time. We've had numerous problems with iPads and its use as part of a live lesson. Student paced is generally fine, but if you want to present then present live and give questions in a student paced Peardeck. 

Subtitles & Closed Captions

Generally I avoid using Slides directly in Zoom, because there isn't a present in tab option and it isn't well integrated on mac unless you have 2 screens. I'd rather download and present on PowerPoint or use the Peardeck plugin.  This was because on a single screen it was difficult to follow where your tab would appear.

Go to bottom left of the screen and you will see the presenter menu with captions

However PowerPoint and Slides do enable Closed captioning, which is not only great for students in noisy environments, hard of hearing but also if their internet isn't perfect they will see the subtitle for longer and not miss words. It is important to set the language to the one you are speaking down to the dialect, so English UK works very well for me.

PowerPoint even has live translation, which is really helpful for EAL students. 

Summary Table

I hope this is a helpful guide, please share your tips in the comments. 

Quizlet - Tried, Forgotten and Resurrected!

Quizlet has always been able to make flash cards, but with a new generation of competitive quiz systems such as Quizizz and Kahoot it seemed antiquated! Students weren't even prepared to give it a go the last time I gave them the opportunity to choose a system to make quizzes.

This time however we were on Quizlet's home turf! Making Vocabulary cards and using them as a revision tool.  There's a lot to commend Quizlet as a flash card making tool. It's multi-platform, even works on a Windows phone! Much to the surprise of my one Windows phone user!

In the corner was a suggestion that we could play a new live game and ever one who likes to press big buttons. We decided to give it a go!

Unlike Quizizz and Kahoot this is a team game where you compete against other teams. Teams are randomly formed, but if you don't like the make up they can be reshuffled.   I'd also say it's better if you've got portable devices for this. Oddly enough, a computer lab isn't actually the best place to play this, because teams get shuffled frequently.

However that didn't get in the way of most of my students who found ways to dash to each other, grab phones and generally work it out!

The compulsory team element differentiates it from Quizizz and Kahoot, but it also opens up a new type of challenge.  Quizlet have thought it through that for the kind of sets they have this kind of game will work better.  The other point to note is that Quizlet games take a fraction longer to setup.  I've played Kahoots in under 5 minutes, but Quizlet seems to need at least 10 minutes and more than that the first time students play.

In revision season you need all the tools you can get, so I'd strongly recommend Quizlet if you have vocabulary to learn!

Quiz Tools - The Ultimate Showdown

This week was a revision week before my year 10's next big assessment. So I decided to run a little competition. The students could choose any quiz app they pleased and then the following lesson we'd play the quizzes.

Round 1
Quizlet was knocked out the competition straight away, because none of the year 10s wanted to develop quizzes for that platform and neither did any students choose Socrative. So they didn't make it to the final!

Round 2
The two finalists were Quizizz and Kahoot Students enjoyed creating questions for both platforms and the process was pretty similar.

The Grand Finale
I used a Single Google Sheet to coordinate the quizzes. Each student gave me an url to direct the quiz. I then used a random name picker to choose the quizzes.

Let Battle Commence! 

Both platforms feel like a quiz show with countdowns and music.

Class Game Vs individual

The first key difference is that in Quizizz students play through all the questions when they choose to start the game. This enables students to do the exercise when they have finished another task or it can even be set for homework.  Whilst on Quizizz they were highly focussed on their screens but they were not so directly competing with each other.

In Kahoot the whole class plays together, which adds to the sense of community but means everybody has to play the same quiz at exactly the same time!

Question displayed on Main Screen Vs at Your device

Quizizz also displays the questions on the students device, so not everybody has to see the projector, which is a real advantage in rooms with poor visibility.

Logins
We had no difficulties at any point logging into Kahoot and this weekend I had over 80 players at once playing it. With Quizizz we did have one or two small login problems, but all were fixed with the judicious use of the refresh button.

Who won?




The students narrowly gave the win to Kahoot! They acknowledged the fact that Quizizz enables quizzes to be given out as homework and they enjoyed using both.  So it was a noble contender that we hope goes from strength to strength!