Zentation
Overview
"If YouTube and PowerPoint had a baby...it would be Zentation."
Zentation offers a user the technology to combine their presentation software with a video of the presentation. The video no longer needs to cover up a corner of the presentation. The two medias are uploaded individually. After synchronizing the two, viewers have the ability to see both the presenter and the slides side by side at the same time. If needed, you can just focus on the presenter. Or you can pause the video and take notes on the information being shared on the slides. This makes sharing your presentations with the public extremely easy.
Features
- Media is created separately from Zentation
- Each individual media uploaded separately
- Since media is uploaded, media is retained in case the site goes away
- Video can be made using any video recorder
- Presentation upload has to be .ppt
- Ability to sync the video and the presentation
- Option to drag and resize the screen you want to focus on
- Provides an Outline to easily jump from slide to slide
- Ability to share through social meda
- Ability to leave comments
- Free or paid subscription options
Zentation Review
This would be a useful tool if giving a presentation/lecture to a group of people. If I were to use this software in a collaborative situation, I would have the students watch the video in groups, pause it accordingly to discuss and record their ideas to bring back to the group as a whole. If you have the ability to record your class, you could use this presentation software in a flipped setting as you share information or your students could do the same in presenting to their peers.
The upload process for a YouTube video and a PowerPoint presentation are simple. As you sync the video, there is a button that allows you to set the time from the player. However, as you watch the video, the slide does not always switch at the time where the video player says it should. The outline option in the menu allows you to jump from slide to slide and re-watch the information from that particular slide. This would come in handy for students who may have missed something. They wouldn't have to watch the whole video again, or try to forward the video to the correct part.
This presentation software provides an interesting way to communicate information in both a digital media presentation with video attached. Without a paid subscription, the presentations do need to be made public.
Teacher - James Brohn
See Also
Google Slides
Prezi
SlideBoom
Visme
Zoho Show
Screencastify
YouTube
