I could have used this last week for my presentation in Sudbury. There was a time when I was planning to switch between my presentation and an application I wanted to demonstrate on the iPad. As it turns out, my only option was to physically move the VGA out connector between the devices. I elected not to do that given the time constraints. But Haiku Deck for the iPad would have been perfect.
I’ve got to state right from the beginning here that my friend Andy Forgrave dropped the ball on this. He’s the master of the Haiku on Twitter and I would have thought that he’d be all over an application with a name like this! We share everything. In fact, if you search for “dougpete”, you’ll get this image.
Onward…
Haiku Deck is a great utility for creating and displaying a presentation – all from your iPad. (with the ability to synch to a website for other functionality)
The process for creating a presentation is a snap. You’ll create an account on your iPad and you’re ready to create your first presentation. Select a theme and away you go.
For this post, I thought I would create a short presentation highlighting the three “most popular” posts from this blog for the past month. I grabbed my theme and was ready to go. I was immediately impressed with what was NOT there. There was no easy way to do bullet points and no way to throw in gratuitous slide transitions. In other words, it’s the presentation package that lives and breathes what we want in a tool for students. It’s all about the communication; not the slideshow.
How’s that for a thoughtful first slide for my presentation? I’m even wearing my thoughtful shirt. I think Andy even took that picture.
Here are the actual posts. I used different layouts for each slide just to demo things.
Haiku Deck even puts a closing slide onto your presentation for you.
OK, how about creating the screens. Like other presentation tools, you’ll choose a particular theme.
In addition to the free themes above, there are others available for a price.
Editing a slide is a piece of cake. You choose the slide to edit and you’ll notice the three options on the left side of the screen below. Tt lets you enter the text for the slide, the image option lets you bring in pictures, and the green layout option lets you choose where your text appears on the slide.
Haiku Deck is designed to be very visual in the design of your presentation and it shows when you’re choosing an image. There’s an option to enter search keys, or to tap on a word that you’ve already entered on the slide. The camera browses the Photo Gallery on your iPod or from a nice choice of other locations.
In my case, I went to the blog posts that I’m referring to and shot the images up to my Dropbox account. It was a snap to bring them into the slides for the presentation.
It didn’t take long and I was done. (Of course, it was a short presentation…) Connect the iPad to a projector and away you go! Use a finger swipe to move through each slide. Had I used this package and wanted to demonstrate an application, it would just be a matter of a three finger gesture and select the application needed. No more cabling swapping.
Meanwhile, back on the web, I’m able to log into Haikudeck.com to do some neat things. My presentation appears in “My Gallery” where I could add speaker notes or even play through the presentation. There are options to share and even embed the presentation where it’s available or include a link.
http://www.haikudeck.com/p/osYZWnyBki/the-latest-from-my-blog
I’m so impressed with the product. If the opportunity presents itself, I can see using this as a regular presentation package. Imagine just walking up to a data projector with your iPad instead of lugging out a computer and getting it connected. In the classroom, I like the fact that it doesn’t have all the annoyances that you’ll find in some of the big expensive products. It turns the focus back on the student to become a communicator and not a reader of bullets.
It’s free; grab it and add it to your set of tools. I’m sure that you’ll be glad that you did.
Powered by Qumana
Related articles
- Tell a Story in Pictures with Haiku Deck (averageus.com)
- Haiku Deck: a simple way to make better presentations (review) (scottberkun.com)
- Haiku Deck: Short and Sweet (oddsauce.wordpress.com)
- Haiku Deck (techondemand.wordpress.com)
- Haiku Deck – set your presentation free (antsict.wordpress.com)
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.