An Excited Educator : September 2015

For my students first project this term they had to produce a presentation about themselves and their relationship with technology. We decided on lots of questions together to help the create content, including 'what is the first piece of digital technology I used', 'how will technology simplify my life in the future' and 'what is the coolest piece of technology I have ever seen'. They were given free choice to pick how they presented their work, but were told they must use at least two digital tools, one of which had to be new to them. They were also told they had to challenge themselves and they had to show off their skills! Students used a whole range of tools and create everything from stop motion animations through to interactive games. One of the tools a student used was EMaze. They had selected is as their new tech, and while they loved it, they said it was incredibly easy.

E-Maze is a FREE tool which allows you to create beautiful presentations. Not only are the presentations gorgeous, but they have incredible templates and themes. Examples include: turning your presentation into an old Hollywood movie, guiding someone through a newspaper and even creating your online virtual gallery.

The online gallery blew me away and I can see some some fantastic ways to use this in the classroom. The most basic version would be that students create a gallery of their own work or of art work they have researched. Alongside the pictures, you can also put in as much or as little information as you would like, (so you could have this as a background presentation, while you talk in front of it, or you could have it as a stand alone presentation with all the information on the screen). I can see students creating a museum for a history or science project or showcasing their own projects.

I spent ten minutes and produced a gallery quickly. This video will show you how the gallery looks, why I think it is useful and then it will show you how to make your own!