Monthly Archives: November 2016

Sway: Creating Visually Interesting and Interactive Projects

This week I want to introduce Microsoft Sway.  Sway is a program designed to help users create projects that are visually interesting and incorporates some interactive components.  It is a little difficult to describe what Sway is, so instead here is an example that I created.  This is a short project describing one of my hobbies, canning fresh foods.

Sway provides the user with a number of existing templates to choose from (for example I searched for ‘communication’ and Sway had a template ready for me with ideas of what to include) or to create their own. The basic building block is called a ‘card.’ These cards can be text or media based. Additionally there are different options for grouping cards together.  Another nice feature of Sway is the ease in finding media.  Sway holds a library of images and videos that are part of the Creative Commons License, so you can be confident that you are allowed to use the images you search for.  All of the images in my Sway example came from their library.  All I had to do was use a search terms (e.g. “tomatoes,” “chopping food,” “canning tools”) and a number of options were presented.

Bringing images in is done through a simple drag-and-drop action. In addition the user can include information about the image and include alt text (text that screen readers can read) for those who are visually impaired.

A few ways that instructors might choose to use Sway can include giving students a slightly different way of presenting material.  This tool allows for a story telling approach that PowerPoint may not do well.  Student may also use this tool to create electronic projects.  Stories, Informational Projects, Marketing materials, Research Presentations are just a few ideas.

If you are interested in seeing a Sway build in action take a look at this short 4 min video I made.

MyHistro: Interactive Timeline Builder

Ever wanted combine a series of historical events with images, video, description, and map locations? MyHistro is a free timeline builder that allows users to do this quite easily. Entire stories can be captured using this tool putting historical events into context in terms of both time and location.  There are a number of examples that can be viewed here.  To learn more about each event, click to read more and see more pictures and videos.

Creating a timeline is pretty easy.  First you need to set up a free account, but from there you can build your own stories (projects).  Here is an example that I created telling the story of all the places that I have lived. It took about a half hour to build this timeline.

Creating the timeline is pretty easy. All you do is identify the events you want to describe and provide the dates and descriptions.  Images can be uploaded (though I am having difficulty with this right now, it may be something to do with my OS upgrade to Sierra), but extended descriptions and videos from the web are easily added as well.

There is an ability to create collaborative projects as well so students can work together on a larger timeline project.

Overall this appears to be a nice, easy tool to help students engage with the material more both while learning from the timeline and in creating their own timelines. I’d be interested in hearing about different project ideas that faculty might have that this tool could make possible.