Are you looking for creative ways to present content to students using technology? Whether you are teaching remotely or in a classroom, interactive multimedia presentations are a great way to keep students engaged and focused as they learn new content! In this post, you’ll discover the best way to create multimedia presentations for students that are interactive and fun.
What are multimedia presentations?
You may be wondering what exactly is considered a multimedia presentation. According to Merriam-Webster, a multimedia presentation is any presentation that shares information or expresses ideas using at least two different forms of content. This can include pictures, video, audio, text, games, and other interactives. Multimedia presentations are a great way to teach content because the variety of media incorporated into a presentation appeals to different learning styles and keeps students focused.
How do you create a multimedia presentation?
There are lots of different ways to create multimedia presentations for students, but one of my favorites is Genially. If you are unfamiliar, Genially is a web tool that helps educators bring content to life through interactive presentations and experiences.
There is a reason why more than five million educators around the world are using Genially! With many of the programs available for creating educational multimedia presentations, you have to create your own templates and import your own images. But, with Genially, you can create a fun, professional-looking presentation in minutes using their pre-made templates and library of stock images. The platform also makes it easy to animate your presentations and add audio.
How do I get started with Genially?
Before getting started, you will want to scroll through Genially’s library of interactive presentation templates. Often, I get inspired just by looking at the thousands of options available.
You’ll also see that templates are available for even more than just multimedia presentations. There are 12 categories of templates you can create for your classroom including posters, infographics, maps, quizzes, and games.
After selecting the template you will use, you can customize the presentation with educational content. Genially provides options to easily add text, images, animations, videos, and audio to your presentations. You can also make components of your presentations interactive so that things move, a sound plays, or a pop-up box appears when students click on or hover over something.
To learn more about all of these features, check out this video that shows how I create interactive presentations with Genially.
Of all the interactive elements that can be added to a Genially presentation, my favorites are the drawing tools and the drag and drop activities. The drawing tool is fun because it allows students to draw models, complete a matching activity, or write out ideas. The drag and drop feature is great for helping students to sort and compare information. I’m not the only one who enjoys these features. I find that these are some of the students’ favorite features too!
I have detailed how to incorporate these features in the following video.
Are Genially presentations accessible?
A huge problem with many platforms teachers are using for online learning is that they are not accessible for all students. With other programs that allow teachers to create interactive presentations, I usually have to install an add-on to the program to be able to add audio (that is if it will let me add audio at all). One of my favorite things about creating multimedia presentations with Genially is that it is easy to make the presentations accessible.
With Genially, audio features are already a part of the program. So, adding narration to a presentation is not complicated at all. The following video shows how I make my Genially presentations accessible for all students with audio.
What other fun activities can I create with Genially?
Whenever I am creating a multimedia presentation for students, I always include self-checking questions at the beginning and end of the presentation. The beginning questions allow students to gauge how much they already know about the topic, while the ending questions allow students to review what they learned throughout the presentation.
The video below shows how I add self-checking questions to my presentations
Previously, I mentioned that Genially provides 12 categories of templates to choose from. I have found that students especially love the breakout room templates. I have seen teachers shy away from creating classroom escape rooms because it can get complicated, ensuring all the challenges fit together in a meaningful way.
Using a Genially template takes away the complicated and time-consuming aspects of creating a classroom escape room. All you have to do is select a template, make a few minor changes to it, and you’re ready to go.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a fun, meaningful way to teach content to students digitally, multimedia presentations are a great option. When it comes to creating a multimedia presentation, there are lots of programs to choose from. But, I have found that Genially is one of the easiest for teachers to use and most engaging for students. To start creating, register for free at www.Genial.ly!
