We’ve all endured “death by PowerPoint.” It’s a painful experience for the audience and probably not all that fun for the presenter either. To help my students deliver effective presentations—free of those deadly bullet points—I have my go-to applications.

First, a good presentation begins with a clearly outlined story. Even presentations that are strictly fact-based can have a narrative. I always have students write outlines for the stories their presentations are going to tell, and I offer them a choice of outlining tools, including Text2MindMap, Penultimate, and that reliable standby, Google Documents.

To get started with Text2MindMap, students type their outlines on the provided “canvas.” When they click “draw,” a mindmap appears, illustrating the connections between the topics they provided. If the visualization doesn’t match what the students think are the connected items, they can edit their outlines and generate another mindmap.

Penultimate, a free iPad app, allows you to use a stylus to handwrite and draw in digital notebooks. Students can drag and drop pages into any order at any time during the outlining process. For the student who likes the long-hand approach, Penultimate is a nice blending of analog and digital processes.

After the outlines are done, we can begin creating slides. Telling a story with the aid of a slideshow is best accomplished with high-quality imagery. High-resolution pictures won’t become pixelated when you expand them to fill the slide. If students don’t have their own pictures, they can search for public domain (PD) and Creative Commons licensed images. Pixabay is an outstanding place to find images in the public domain. The Flickr Commons is another recommended source of PD content.

A free, beautifully designed application, Haiku Deck is the best presentation tool currently available for the iPad. Haiku Deck helps you find Creative Commons licensed images for your presentations. Each time you add a slide to your set, the application provides an image search button alongside it. Enter a search term and Haiku Deck will suggest high resolution images for you to use. You can also upload your own images from your iPad or import them from Instagram and Facebook.

When it comes to presentation software, there are plenty of alternatives to PowerPoint or Keynote. There’s Google Slides, which in the last year has expanded its theme options. Like Google Docs, Google Slides is a collaborative tool that students can use to create a presentation as part of a group project. Another benefit of using Google Slides is that as a teacher I can attach comments to specific parts of student slide shows, whether its calling attention to spelling mistakes or praising an especially well-designed slide. Two other worthy applications in this category are Empressr and Slide Rocket.

Empressr is a Web service for creating and sharing high quality online slide presentations—with a couple of features differentiating it from its competitors. First, Empressr gives you the option of embedding video from multiple sources into your slide show. Next is the editor feature, which allows users to draw, create, or edit images inside their slides.

Slide Rocket is similar to Empressr, with some very nice features such as 3-D transitions and a collaboration feature that enables other users to co-create presentations. Slide Rocket makes it easy to include video, images, or third party plug-ins. There’s also an option to sign in with a Google Account, which is why Slide Rocket has become fairly popular in schools that use Google Apps. Students can log in using their Google credentials, work on their projects, and save their work without having to keep track of a separate username and password.

Before my students stand in front of their peers to share their presentations, there’s one last thing that I require. And that’s to share their speaker notes with me so that I can provide some guidance if the images they’ve selected don’t match the spoken message.

A well-designed slidedeck is key, with the potential of making a good presentation into a great one. Have your students try these tools to help them do their very best work.

Three Sources of Images for Student Presentations from School Library Journal on Vimeo.

How did you get the idea for the Teen Technology Project?

Two years ago, I took time off from teaching because I didn’t feel I was having the impact I wanted in the classroom. I didn’t want to become a cranky teacher, but I didn’t have the energy to “change the system” so I took a break. I started my own business, but I’ve always been trying to think of ways that I can return to working with teenagers.

In my business, Your Event Without Borders, a live video-streaming technology service provider, I often get contacted by nonprofit organizations or causes that would like to use my services to spread their message but can’t afford to pay me. I’m currently working with some of these groups, but cannot afford to work with them all for free.

In June, I attended a 24-hour virtual retreat for businesses, and while meditating on all the pieces of my business and my passions, the idea struck me: What if I combined my business with working with teens outside of the traditional education system?

I realized that the nonprofits that had been contacting me would be great clients for teens to work with. The teens could get valuable experiences, and the nonprofits could get much-needed help.

From there, the vision continues to grow, but a key idea in the project is that the teenagers will control decisions, so I’m holding back on my own vision so that the teens have room to create their own.

How have teens reacted to the project?

The first group I spoke to had specifically come at lunchtime to talk to me about the project. Their own interests included filmmaking, online broadcasting, Web design, gaming, and photography. They quickly “got it” and started asking questions about the idea and the scope. One of them is already doing some YouTube broadcasting and appreciated the idea of having a more professional platform to work with. They were also excited about the idea of having better equipment and software and a place to work from. This group is busy spreading the word now, and I’ll be meeting with them later this month.

The second group I spoke to was a senior art class with about 20 students. Their reactions ranged from not listening to me at all, to not being interested in the idea, to asking me questions and writing down my information so they can contact me when they have some artwork ready for the project. Some of these students also saw the possibility of doing contract work for the nonprofits or other clients and spreading their artwork beyond their parents and classroom.

The costs of starting up the Teen Technology Project are clearly outlined in your Indiegogo document. I noticed that you’ve included costs for studio time. Have you considered partnering with the local Kootenay libraries for space and Internet access to reduce costs?

This is a decision that will be up to the teens once we have a group of interested “business teens” ready to start making these decisions. The plan is to go with these teens and view different options ranging from spaces like the library up to monthly rental space. With the money raised, one of their decisions will be about whether the best investment is in a free low-cost or high-cost studio space. I want them to have ownership over this decision.

One major factor with the library space would be making sure it had a fast enough and stable enough Internet to run some of the live broadcasting software we may be using, as well as the ability of the teens to personalize the space with their own posters and artwork.

I think figuring out these types of pros and cons will be a great first challenge for the teens.

The Kootenay Association of Science and Technology (KAST) provided you with some important connections and guidance. Can you talk a bit about that organization and its Growing Learning Opportunities with Science (GLOWS) program?

I’m currently meeting with KAST to figure out the different ways we can work together to spread the idea of the project and benefit everyone involved. With some of the money already raised, the Teen Technology Project sponsored the L.V. Rogers Secondary School team in the November 10 GLOWS robotics competition.  Normally, I would like the involved teenagers to make decisions like this, but it was too great of an opportunity to start making an immediate impact and spread the word.

I also attended a KAST workshop recently and met some of the speakers at that event who I’m planning on bringing into the project as guest speakers to talk with teens. We’re also discussing getting some of the teens to attend a KAST grant-writing workshop so they can learn how to write grants and start looking for some alternative funding for the project.

According to 2008 data from Statistics Canada, self-employment and service jobs are higher in the Kootenay area than in other provinces of British Columbia. Do you think those factors will encourage young adults in the area to be more entrepreneurial?

This is a great question and to be honest I’m not sure, but I’m hoping to find out. From my time teaching in the area, most of the kids I worked with were planning on following a traditional educational arc: graduate from high school and attend college or university, or get a full-time job. I wasn’t exposed to a large group of entrepreneurial teens. However, I was teaching math and science, which generally put me in contact with kids that are probably more inclined to head down the college/university route.

If there isn’t an entrepreneurial trend in the area already, one of my big hopes is that the Teen Technology Project will start to create that inclination in the area. One of the big questions the project is asking in my head is, What would happen if teens were exposed to the entrepreneurial spirit at a young age? I’m really looking forward to answering that question and seeing what happens.

Thinking of your former work as a high school teacher and your current business, Your Event Without Borders, how do you think simulcasts can be built into the education system to benefit students and teachers?

This technology could have a huge impact on the education system. Schools and students in British Columbia are spread out in a number of small communities, and sometimes it can be hard to provide content specialists in all of these areas. Currently, kids are learning some of these subject areas via recorded online classes and reading materials, but the technology I use in my business would change the way this looks.

You could set up a teacher and classroom in one location, and then stream that video feed live to other locations where students could join those classes and learn in real time. You could set up live discussion groups in different areas so teens in more isolated areas would have a peer group to discuss topics with. You could afford to bring in bigger name speakers for teacher professional development and pay for those speakers by broadcasting that event to multiple schools. Library programs could bring in authors that normally wouldn’t come to a small area, by broadcasting that author’s talk to multiple locations and increase the audience.

My mind goes in a million different directions with the possibilities of this technology for education, and I think with the right implementation, it could make a great difference in B.C—though I think we have to be careful with its use, too, so we don’t turn all teaching experiences into students staring into a non-interactive computer screen.

You see, I’m not really that smart. I just know people who are. One of the wisest things that we librarians can do is to collaborate with other smart librarians who love to share. For example, I have a strong personal learning network (PLN) that starts on Twitter and even includes a monthly face-to-face gathering. My PLN provides me with lots of really good ideas, answers questions, and supports my work. It is through these resources that I have gathered a huge technology toolbox, assessment strategies, promotional ideas, and a ton of worthwhile resources that I can pass on to my teachers.

The core of my network starts online with Twitter and the #tlchat hashtag. You can get started on Twitter by following great school librarians like Buffy Hamilton, Gwyneth Jones, Donna Baumbach, or Jennifer Lagarde. You can also find librarian folks on Facebook and Google+. Several blogs like The Never Ending Search and Not So Distant Future post great resources, links, ideas, and challenges. I find the online world a great place to ask questions or get directions. For me, this is better than email because there are so many knowledgeable experts who respond almost instantaneously.

Librarians can also take advantage of some great (free) professional development opportunities. Join the Teacher Librarian Virtual Cafe webinar presentations the first Monday of every month, live #tlchat twitter discussions the 2nd Monday of every month, or peruse the outstanding free online recorded sessions of Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference held last month. School Library Journal also features many free webcasts including a series that just began in September focused on Common Core.

Do you need more ideas? My state’s professional organization (Colorado Association of School Libraries) has been developing a site where we librarians can upload examples on everything from advocacy to lesson plans. Perhaps your state has a site like Survive and Thrive which has been created as a space for sharing stories and models of 21st century skills. Broaden your perspective by joining  EdWeb.net, Council on 21st Century Learning, or your own state’s eLearning professional development site (like eNet Colorado).

Finally, take some time to meet face-to-face with other professionals in a learning atmosphere. A small group of us have committed to meet once a month (at the bar of course!) where one of us facilitates the discussion or shows new tools for learning. While we often arrive beleaguered by the trials of the day, we invariably leave energized and ready to try new things.

Librarians love to grow and learn, and must do so to be on the cutting edge of positive change. Since most of us are the only staff person in our field in the building, we must utilize opportunities to develop our own personal learning networks, share ideas, and find ways to be rejuvenated.

The five names were among 20 finalists for the National Book Awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature, which were announced Wednesday morning by David Steinberger, chairman of the National Book Foundation’s board of directors, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, hosted by Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, and Willie Geist.

William Alexander, author of Goblin Secrets (Margaret K. McElderry Bks./S & S), was sipping coffee at a café before picking his three-year-old son from preschool. Having some quiet time alone with his notebook was a present to himself on his 36th birthday. So when a call came from a man claiming to be Harold Augenbraum, the executive director of the National Book Foundation, Alexander thought it was a cruel and elaborate birthday prank.

“I didn’t say so at the time, just in case it wasn’t a prank and he really was Harold Augenbraum,” says Alexander, whose novel is about a boy who joins a troupe of goblins to help him find his missing brother. “So far it seems to be real, which makes all of this a magnificent birthday present, but I’m still not sure I believe it.”

Now that the news has started to sink in, Alexander says, he feels “Astonishment. Joy. Hiccups.” And he can’t wait to meet Susan Cooper, this year’s Margaret A. Edwards Award-winner and one of the five judges, including Daniel Ehrenhaft, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Marly Youmans, and Gary D. Schmidt, who will present the award on November 14.

Patricia McCormick, who wrote Never Fall Down (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins), describes her reaction to the news about being a finalist as a scene from the film “Love Actually” where actress Laura Linney’s character jumps up and down because she finally gets asked out on a date.

“I was jumping up and down like a kid while trying to keep a totally cool tone of voice on the phone with Harold Augenbraum,” says McCormick, whose novel, narrated by Cambodian human-rights activist Arn Chorn Pond, deals with his survival during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror and genocide. “When I called to tell [Pond] about the award, he was characteristically humble. He asked me to thank the judges.”

McCormick says receiving validation from the National Book Awards judges is so important to a book like this because it helps reluctant readers overcome any hesitation they might have had to the difficult subject matter.

“Just as importantly, it affirms the artistic risks that I took by writing the book in the voice of an 11-year-old boy—a very poetic, but ungrammatical voice that conveys all the terror as well as the humanity of his experience,” she says. “Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it affirms the importance of storytelling as a way to foster understanding and peace.”

Eliot Schrefer, who wrote Endangered (Scholastic), went for a morning run and returned at 9 a.m. to a bunch of excited voicemails from his fiancé, so he knew that something major had happened.

“Then I opened my email while listening to the voicemails, and it all became very clear,” says the author, whose books involves a girl who discovers just how much humans can bond with animals when she visits her mother at her sanctuary for bonobos in Congo. “I’m moved and humbled by being a finalist. To be acknowledged, yes, but also because I’ll get to meet my fellow nominees and the committee members, whom I admire a ton.”

Steve Sheinkin, author of Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon (Flash Point/Roaring Brook), was working in the library—his home away from home—when he received a very cryptic email with “confidential” in the subject line and the message containing just a name and number to call.

“But at the bottom was the National Book Foundation contact info, which got me kind of intrigued,” says Sheinkin, whose book, which received a starred review from SLJ, tells the story of the atomic bomb. “I called the guy, and he told me my book was a finalist, but that I couldn’t tell anyone except my wife! So I tried to play it cool, and just went back to work. Actually, it was fun to have that secret for a day.”

On Wednesday morning, he watched the announcement on TV with his kids, ages six and three, and although they were semi-interested, they seemed to enjoy the show’s previous interview with actor Ben Affleck just as much.

“The recognition is a huge honor for me and really confirms that I’m on the right path,” he says. “And to think that just a few short years ago I was writing textbooks!”

Carrie Arcos, who wrote Out of Reach (Simon Pulse/S & S), had just finished teaching a class at Southern California’s Biola University when she received an email from the National Book Foundation.

“The note was very official-sounding and formal, ‘Dear Ms. Arcos please call us immediately,’” she said it read. “I actually thought that I might have been in trouble for something!”

When she returned the call and was told the news, Arcos says she was completely shocked and, like Alexander, thought a friend was pulling a prank on her.

“After the very patient person on the line proved to me he was a part of the foundation—it  all really set in,” she adds.

Arcos says it’s “so humbling and affirming” to receive a nomination for such a prestigious award.

“I have read National Book Award winners over the years and to think that I’m including in that category is exhilarating,” she says. “What an honor!”

The winners will be announced Wednesday, November 14 during a ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City,

The following is a list of the finalists:

William Alexander’s Goblin Secrets (Margaret K. McElderry Bks./S & S)

SLJ‘s review: Rownie and other “stray” children live with Graba, a Baba Yaga-type witch with mechanical, chickenlike legs. His older brother, Rowan, lived with him until he became an actor and disappeared since their city outlaws acting. Rownie, anxious to find him, runs away, much to the ire of Graba. He meets a troupe of goblin actors who teach him their craft? and the secrets of the masks they wear and make. He learns to trust the goblins and thinks they will help in the search for his brother. Written in “Acts” and “Scenes” as in a staged drama, the story weaves a many-webbed tale, rich in imagination with a fairy-tale feel. However, it seems as though something important is missing in the connections among the many situations as well as the story as a whole. Also, the characters, except for Rowan, seem one dimensional without much importance in the plot. True fans of fantasy or science fiction may enjoy this book but it’s additional at best.–D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH

Carrie Arcos’s Out of Reach (Simon Pulse/S & S)
Rachel has always idolized her older brother Micah, who struggles with addiction. But she tells herself that he’s in control. And she almost believes it—until  the night that Micah doesn’t come home.

Patricia McCormick’s Never Fall Down (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)

SLJ‘s starred review: With unflinching candor, an authentic voice, and an indomitable will to survive, Cambodian human-rights activist Arn Chorn Pond narrates the remarkable story of his survival during the Khmer Rouge reign of terror and genocide. McCormick has blended his personal recollections with extensive interviews, historical research, and her own imagination to create a powerful, intimate novel. In 1975, 11-year-old Arn lives an impoverished but inventive life with his aunt and siblings. His father has died and his mother can no longer run the family-owned opera house. After the Khmer Rouge soldiers arrive in his town, everyone is ordered to agricultural labor camps. Separated from his family, Arn witnesses the brutality and sadism of the “black pajama” soldiers, the exhaustion and starvation of his companions, and the horrific Killing Fields massacres. When the soldiers ask for musicians, Arn volunteers. Although he has never played, his natural talent quickly emerges and he becomes a popular khim player, ensuring his survival. With the 1979 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, the Khmer soldiers abandon his camp and he flees with thousands across the border into Thailand. Rescued by peace activist Peter L. Pond, Arn and other orphans come to America where Arn eventually channels his traumatic past into helping other refugees and preserving traditional Cambodian arts and music. Once again, McCormick has delivered a heartrending exposé of human tragedy. The natural syntax and grammar of Arn’s narration imbues his story with a stunning simplicity and clarity against a backdrop of political chaos, terror, and death. This compelling story will awaken compassion and activism in secondary readers. –Gerry Larson, Durham School of the Arts, Durham, NC

Eliot Schrefer’s Endangered (Scholastic)
When Sophie has to visit her mother at her sanctuary for bonobos in Congo, she’s not thrilled to be there. It’s her mother’s passion, and Sophie doesn’t want to have anything to do with it. At least not until Otto, an infant bonobo, comes into her life, and for the first time she feels the bond a human can have with an animal.

Steve Sheinkin’s Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon (Flash Point/Roaring Brook)

SLJ‘s starred review: “Harry Gold was right: This is a big story.” So begins this depiction of the “creation–and theft–of the deadliest weapon ever invented.” As he did in The Notorious Benedict Arnold (Roaring Brook, 2010), Sheinkin has again brought his superior talent for storytelling to bear in what is truly a gripping account of discovery, espionage, and revolutionary changes in both physics and the modern world. This fascinating tale, packed with a wide cast of characters, focuses mainly on three individuals: spy for the Soviets Harry Gold, leader of the Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Knut Haukelid, who sabotaged German bomb efforts while working for the Norwegian resistance. Sheinkin skillfully combines lucid, conversational snapshots of the science behind the atomic bomb with a fast-paced narrative of the remarkable people who made it possible and attempted to steal it. Handsomely designed and loaded with archival photos and primary-source documents, the accessible volume lays out how the bomb was envisioned and brought to fruition. While the historical information and hard facts presented here will likely be new to the intended audience, they in no way overwhelm readers or detract from the thoroughly researched, well-documented account. It reads like an international spy thriller, and that’s the beauty of it.–Brian Odom, Pelham Public Library, AL

To create an ebook or app in Aerbook Maker, start in the users’ dashboard, where you can upload an imprint logo. Next, set the project’s dimensions and orientation from a drop-down menu that makes selection easy with presets currently available for Kindle Fire, iPad, iPhone, iPhone retina display, and Instabook for Instagram. Alternatively, a user can create a project in any custom dimensions they choose. A cover can be added as well as titles and author names. Blank projects start out with a single page in the editor and authors can add images, text, video or audio, repositioning and resizing items and tweaking designs on the fly, with all project changes saved to the cloud. Pages can be saved as templates, too, making it easy to reuse page layouts—a feature that school librarians and teachers could tap into to make it easier for younger students to create picture books.

More sophisticated students can add depth, motion, and interactivity to their ebooks by adding “behaviors”—actions that happen when readers click on them—to any project element. Behaviors include internal links for jumping—hypercard-style—to another page within the book or external links for opening Web pages; playing an audio or video file; or revealing or hiding a page layer. Authors can also add parallax animation, a simple technique that simulates depth by making page elements move at assigned speeds, depending on how “far” they are designated to be from the viewer.

Authors can also elect to share parts of their books on the Web and across social networks for feedback and collaboration, another advantage of cloud-based creation. Once a version of an ebook is deemed complete, you can export it as a downloadable file that can be made available for free or for sale on a private website, or submitted to Amazon or Apple. Soon, Aerbook promises to offer a direct channel for selling DRM-free iBooks directly to customers, all from the Aerbook dashboard.

Still brand new, Aerbook Maker is already pretty cool stuff. I was able to create a basic ebook and export it in a couple of different file formats within an hour. Creating apps is undeniably trickier: they’re exported in Corona format, which requires developers to have a copy of the free Corona SDK to view it in a simulator and build it for distribution. While that may sound daunting, it’s worth remembering that an eighth grader created Bubble Ball, one of the most popular iPhone apps ever, so we might think twice before selling our students short. Plus, Aerbook promises to further streamline and simplify app development, too, eventually offering a complete Web-based app-building and distribution service.

Since many of us still have a couple weeks left before school resumes, the time to sign up for a free account and experiment with Aerbook is now. If you have any ideas about unique ways to use the product in education, or if you’d like to try piloting Aerbook Maker in your school, you’re invited to contact the company at aerbookmaker@aerbook.com.