Thing 17 – Online Productivity

I had a chance to look at the online productivity tool called Zoho Show. In a nutshell, it is an online presentation tool, in the tradition of Microsoft PowerPoint, but with a twist. While you can still make slides, import images, change formatting and change the order of the slides, this tool allows you to do all of this online. One obvious advantage is that if you are working on a presentation with a group of colleagues, each of the colleagues can log onto the site and add/arrange information on the actual presentation at their leisure. No need for sending drafts back and forth. (Zoho also has a suite of productivity tools very much like Google - it may be something to look into.)

Zoho Show can produce a very inviting slideshow. The user interface is fairly intuitive and easy for most to grasp. Once completed, the slideshows can be made public or kept private, as well as being able to make a link that you can paste onto your website from which people can launch a presentation. Also, Zoho Show has an awesome feature which allows a user to invite people to view the slideshow online, while the speaker conducts the slideshow from a remote location. There is facility for interaction through dedicated instant message-type system. Distance learning “on the cheap.”

Applications are obvious: a slideshow repository for presentations given where Internet access is provided. Zoho Show would be an outstanding site for teachers to take their classes when they are instructing their students on how to assemble a persuasive slideshow presentation. Since it is being done on line, students could work on their files from any computer at school, and also work on their slideshow presentations at home (if available). The cost savings for school districts that currently use software centered slideshow presentation could be substantial.

Now, the downside: 1. there is currently not a way to export the slideshow into Microsoft PowerPoint format, 2. animation support could be better, 3. the clip Art Library is good but could use many more images. This being said, it's still a fantastic way to make an effective and visually pleasing slideshow presentation without the need to purchase dedicated software.