App Review: SlideShark

SlideShark bills itself as an app designed ‘to present and share PowerPoint® from the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch the way they were meant to be seen’. From a teaching perspective, this app allows a teacher to display their presentation on a PC screen/projector, whilst using their iDevice to move between slides and access drawing tools.

Why?

This app is great for those who like to be ‘mobile’ during a lecture and don’t want to stand next to a PC to change slides – using SlideShark, you can swipe between slides from your iPad/iPhone. Its also great in allowing you to view upcoming slides, notes pages and a timer, whilst your learners still just see the current slide on the PC/Projector. The app provides you with the ability to annotate your slides, and also comes with a laser pointer function. If that wasn’t enough, it preserves a basic animations with presentations, which is unlike other similar apps.

How?

Download SlideShark from the App Store and create a free account. PowerPoint® presentation files can be loaded into SlideShark on your iPad by linking to a Google Drive/Drop Box etc. You can also log in to the SlideShark website from your PC and load them in from your PC/myfiles storage.

Once this is complete, on your iPad select your presentation and away you go! To broadcast your screen, select the broadcast icon on the iPad and click ‘Start Broadcasting’. The URL (website) your screen is being broadcast to is displayed – go onto a PC, type that URL in and your screen will be displayed!

Tips

– In the settings area you can customise your username and therefore the URL your presentation will broadcast to (saving this URL in your favourites would be handy to)

– When broadcasting to a PC screen linked to a projector, use Mozilla Firefox as your browser. Tap F11 on your keyboard to enter/exit full screen mode.

– Click the ‘TV’ icon to select different views on the ipad. The view above is named ‘Current with slides’

– To be truly mobile you can combine the use of an iPad and iPhone – set up exactly as above, but click on the ‘remote’ icon to use your iPhone as a remote! The iPhone can be used to switch between slides, view upcoming slides and can be used as a virtual laser pointer.

– SlideShark doesn’t support embedded video within your presentation, so have these available to switch to when needed

Related Apps

If you want a similar app but with the ability to broadcast to more than one screen (e.g. student devices as well as your projector) then try Nearpod. This app allows your students to interact with your presentation with polling options.