Homework Slideshow Solution?

Next year we will have two projectors in our commons area which will play our daily announcements broadcast. With the announcements only being 5 minutes long I would like to have some form of informational slide-show on the screen the rest of the time reminding students of upcoming events, homework due, and other information. Thing is, I don't want to be the one in charge of putting all of this together and keeping it updated.

Question: What sort of collaborative program would anyone recommend that I could train teachers how to input information on and then with just a few clicks have it up scrolling/sliding on the screen after I finish broadcasting the announcements? Would google docs do this?

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Permalink Reply by Kev on April 15, 2010 at 8:14am

G docs would work. I will warn you from experience that you will end up putting it together and keeping it updated or it will never happen!

Someone has to be "running the show" or else the thing turns into a mess.

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Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on April 15, 2010 at 9:27am

I'm not sure if it will meet you needs, but you could try Prezi. It's basically PowerPoint on steroids, and it's got a fairly intuitive interface. Once you create a Prezi, you can "share" it with other users, and everyone can edit it. Then, you can play it directly from the Web site, embed it in any other Web site, or download it as a Flash document. You can also set it up to autoplay (the default is to click through it).

(Anyone can get a free public account, but educators can create free "enjoy" accounts, which allow you to make Prezis private.)

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Permalink Reply by Andrea Hildreth on April 15, 2010 at 9:39am

Don't forget to engage your audience. Perhaps you could insert some student snap-shots between your messages (example: have them photograph each other making funny faces, or playing the air guitar, etc). Once the school administration and teachers see how popular the broadcasts are, they will be happy to contribute.

Maybe you could have a "School Broadcast Class/Club" which would work just like a school newspaper class/club. Then the students would choose what gets broadcasted and keep it updated (just include a remove-by date on the "official message" slides).

What do you think? Would this work at your school?