I have had a few weeks away from my blog and Twitter - sometimes I have to prioritise the work I do and unfortunately these weren't high enough up my list to be achievable. Having a head that doesn't always work effectively can certainly make life interesting. However, I have been thinking about what I wanted to say so not a completely wasted few weeks! This week I want to talk about Sway
I only discovered Sway a few months ago when I saw the app on my microsoft 365 account dashboard. I think I've probably assumed that this is similar to some of the database tools and nothing I need to consider. How wrong can you be and it shows it is always good to investigate and play.
To understand what Sway could do and discover if it could be useful I watched the Learn Microsoft Sway tutorial by Teacher's Tech which gave a good overview of the functionality and an idea of when it might be useful to use.
Sway is a web based tool that allows you to create and present your ideas in a more fluid format than presentation tools like PowerPoint. It is intuitive to use and allows you to quickly search for and add images, videos, tweets, text et cetera. It is quite minimalist in that you are restricted to the things that you can edit and change but there is enough functionality to ensure it does what you want. You can easily drag and drop elements into place and you are not restricted to pages or slides. instead you chosse whether to display your work vertically or horizontally and a swipe up and down or left and right moves you seamlessly to the next idea. A useful key feature is that it optimises itself for the device that it is being viewed on and you have the option to select a part of an image that you want to be seen on any device. I have been really impressed by how professional the finished project looks.
I initially developed a Sway about me to use on my microsoft educator account profile and then got adventurous and produced one for my students to use focusing on 'preparing for the next step - applications and interviews' which I'm hoping they find useful.
It is easy to share the Sway as a unique url is produced for each one you create or you can access an embed code. This means it can be shared quickly by a variety of methods including social media.
I think Sway adds something diffenernt to the other tools available and i like it as an alternative to Prezi for delivering a presentation in a different format. Prezi has some great features but as someone with constant motion sickness it becomes very difficult to watch! As with everything the project can be as simple or complex and as long or short as you like. It is well worth a play to see what it can do and is easy to use. happy Swaying!
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AuthorKirsten Huby Lecturer Child Nursing interested in blended learning, educational technology and improving student engagement. Archives
September 2017
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