Learn About SlideShare — Interactive Schools

With 70 million unique visitors a month, 38 million registered users and being voted in the world's top 10 tools for education and e-learning, it would be very surprising if you have not heard about SlideShare before, but what is SlideShare?

What is it?

When launched in 2006 SlideShare was described as a website similar to YouTube but for slideshows. With the internet becoming more and more accessible SlideShare was launched to put a stop to the dreary days of Microsoft Powerpoint, carrying paper presentations in a briefcase and mostly importantly to put a to stop this....

SlideShare hoped to put a stop to the sleeping boardroom and make a platform where you could easily make an efficient, entertaining, accessible presentation which looks professional and keeps the office awake...

*Maybe not this awake but you get the gist of what we're saying!*

With the potential of SlideShare it soon began to grow and branch into other markets as well as business. It found itself growing into other markets such as technology, education, design, photography, health and many, many more. This is particularly surprising to many people especially as LinkedIn (Social network for business people) acquired SlideShare in 2012!

Check out how a SlideShare presentation works:

How I got 2.5 Million views on Slideshare (by @nickdemey - Board of Innovation) from Board of Innovation

What can it do?

Many people may think that SlideShare is simply just a presentation tool for businesses and the corporate World. Many people may have looked past it because of this but after expanding and branching out more and more, the possibilities of SlideShare are endless.

Check out these unique uses of SlideShare...

From cookbooks to building boats, SlideShare really does have that endless potential which makes a great platform.

Why Use it?

Time Saving: Creating a presentation on SlideShare is simple and really takes no time at all. With a built-in image library and easy slide formatting tools, it take no time at all to create stunning visual presentations.
Easily Accessible: With SlideShare being available to download on mobile and tablets, the ease of access is a big feature of SlideShare. With presentation software such as Microsoft Powerpoint users are expected to download several apps and go through a complex download procedure to view presentations with questionable ease. SlideShare presentations are much easier to download and you will have no problem sharing your presentations with others.
Unlimited Reach: With SlideShare being an online platform, your presentations have a Worldwide reach. This is fantastic for promoting your brand, company, school, product or even yourself. Incorporate brand colours, logos, include amazing facts about your own company or product. This is really free advertising. There are 70 million unique monthly visitors to SlideShare with numbers only rising!
Multi-Media: If you've been mistakenly assuming that SlideShare is all about slides, it isn't entirely true. They remain the most common format used on the website but PDF's, videos and a number of other formats can be used on SlideShare to bring your presentations to life. The ease in which multi-media can be added to the presentations is a huge plus point for SlideShare, it takes a matter of seconds to include a video or a PDF in your presentation.
Archiving: SlideShare is the perfect solution for not having to worry about the small memory stick carrying that crucial presentation, or carrying the presentation in your briefcase . Rather than fuss with large file transfers, simply run the presentation from SlideShare. No need to carry around the presentation and worry about them getting lost. Upload your SlideShare presentation and keep it forever! This is particularly useful if you want to archive presentations or create a series of presentations.

Schools and SlideShare

Schools and SlideShare go hand in hand and are really a perfect match. SlideShare is a learning platform, schools are learning establishments, it makes perfect sense.

However the argument is often why move to an online presentation platform? Why not stick to the old reliable offline presentation software? To look at why schools should use SlideShare it's important to be creative and and explore the platform for yourself!

We looked at some great uses for SlideShare in schools...

So what can schools use SlideShare for?

Creating a quiz: Why not create a quiz for your class? This could be set as homework. By being creative with your SlideShare presentations you can create quizzes to stimulate and challenge pupils in a creative manner. SlideShare is available to download on a variety of devices. The numbers of pupils with phones and tablets is now staggering, why not create a quiz on SlideShare so they can easily complete the quiz from their tablet or mobile?

Maths Challenge! from natywoodward

Look at this brilliant example of a maths quiz!

Homework: As mentioned above in the creating a quiz section, why not use SlideShare to set your pupils some homework? They are literally thousands of presentations about educational topics from World Wars to the ancient Egyptians! Schools can create and upload their own content to share with their pupils or share existing content.
Revision: During critical points of a child's education when the child is studying for several subjects at GCSE level, why not mix up the tools they use to revise? By using SlideShare schools can create new and innovative revision guides for the pupils. Providing variation and being productive and resourceful is crucial in assisting students during such a critical time of their education.
Learn an Language: Why not learn a language on SlideShare? Perhaps one of the more obscure uses of SlideShare but nethertheless it is a possibility. SlideShare can be used as a tool to assist in modern languages in schools. Create a presentation of key phrases, places or just simple greetings. An interactive learning aid really has the potential to get the attention of pupils. Also instead of handing out pieces of paper which usually end up lost or crumpled up in the bottom of the pupils bag, archive the lesson forever on SlideShare, this will be a useful tool for revision and homework also!

Basic French Lesson 3 from Sandra

Learn an Instrument: Why not use SlideShare to learn an instrument at school? SlideShare can be used to aid for teaching music in school. Create handy presentations for remembering guitar chords, create presentations with the sheet music for the christmas play all in one place! They are some great teaching aids when you think of SlideShare as a creative aid.

SlideShare may have started off as a business tool but has blossomed into... well it has blossomed into millions of unique learning tools. Learn an instrument, learn a language, build a boat, cook a lasagne, relieve stress at work! Im sure the founders couldn't have envisaged how SlideShare would evolve so much!

So take a look at SlideShare , create a presentation and see how it can work for you!

We would love to hear your comments and thoughts about SlideShare and how you have used it.

Please share your comments with us below!