Reflection on social media creation:
I have had a plethora of trials and tribulations trying to do this activity.  In the end I selected ‘Slide’ as it one the only Ap that was cooperating with me in the Maldives.  I had a play and really liked OneTrueMedia, also played with Rockyou, Joggle, Slideoo, Photoshow and Slideroll.  I also really liked the slick presentation that Roxio afforded.  I really enjoyed looking at Sharon’s prezi- soo cool!

It wasn’t so long ago that I was frightened of technology- in fact I am still often overwhelmed by the affordances that ICT provides us with and the rate at which things change/get upgraded/ become obsolete.  I knew I wanted to tell a story about my own technological journey– where I have been and where I have learned most of the skills I have today.  I had a plethora of photographs from my time working as an advisor and HOD ICT in the Middle East and I wanted a tool that would enable me to use many images.

Slide was a very user-friendly interface that enabled me to use captions and add music with a groovy background.  Thanks to a post by Megan I realized how I could add more text to my story- since I was having difficulty reducing the font of my captions- using PPT.  This was a huge relief as it tied the pieces together to make for a more succinct story.  UNTIL- I previewed it and realized that unless viewers were speed-readers these PPT images went by way too quickly but there was no tool to enable me to slow it down- you could select only ‘slow’, ‘medium’ or ‘fast’ and I had already selected slow.  Slide does not afford a voice overlay or audio function but this was not what I wanted.  Slide enables users to select from a wide variety of music, backgrounds and themes.  I liked that I could embed the Slide into my ePortfolio and share it with my friends via email and facebook.  I do wish I had more time to fine tune it but I am -overall- happy with the finished product (I can’t wait to get back to the UAE so I can play with prezi!

I could use this as an introduction to my Moodle course to demonstrate to teachers that we all start somewhere and the learning to integrate ICT into our teaching is a constant learning journey.  I am thinking of using this tool for an activity in one of the modules of my Moodle course but not quite sure how I can integrate it appropriately.  I think this is a fantastic Web 2.0 application and I wouldn’t hesitate to use it with my students (or teachers).

Check it out at Slide OR above!!