AI Creation Tool #301: SlidesGo

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS 

When I first started teaching, Prezis were all the rage. Google Slides had yet to wrestle supremacy away from PowerPoint, and being able to zoom in and out of the Z axis during a presentation was extremely exciting. Although I spent countless hours making some fairly effective and entertaining Prezi lectures, I slowly began making my journey back to traditional Google Slides. Slides were easier to share and edit and collaborate on. I was also a little worried about putting all of my educational eggs in one rather small basket. I mean who knew when Prezi would go belly up and I would be shucks out of luck? It's just as well considering many of the sharper AI creation tools are focusing all of their attention on Slides and Powerpoint. 

One thing I try to explain to classes is that AI tools can be more than just, "hey chatGTP, write me something..." It shouldn't merely be a simple replacement for our efforts and intellectual endeavors. We can use AI to enhance and augment ideas we've already got brewing or content we've been using for years. Instead of always asking AI to create a brand new worksheet or reading for class, I will input successful materials that I've used for years to look for ways to improve. Even when I do have ChatGTP or Perplexity create something for me, that's only a starting point that I myself will hammer and chisel into something worth sharing.

SlidesGO is a free and relatively powerful AI creation tool that can help you get started on creating a presentation on Google Slides or PowerPoint. It's easy to use, relatively free (freemium plan), and has a large library of templates and styles for you to choose from. All of their templates are fully customizable which allows you to tailor them to suit your specific teaching style, content, and classroom needs. Images and slide themes are beautiful, colorful, and creative, and can fit 16:9 for class and A4 for printing. There are a few different AI options for creating Slides presentations, but this one is a good mix of practical and aesthetically focused and I highly recommend it!

Instructions:

1. Go to Slidesgo's website: https://slidesgo.com/
2. Sign Up: Click on the "Sign Up" button typically located at the top right corner of the page.
3. Browse Templates: Once logged in, navigate to the "Templates" section on the website.
4. Filter by Category or Subject: Use the filters to search for templates relevant to your subject or theme.
5. Preview Templates: Click on templates to preview them and find one that suits your requirements.

From there you can customize text, insert images, mess with your colors and fonts, and duplicate or add slides as needed. Once you're finished you can export the presentation and export it by clicking the "download" button and choosing either Google Slides or PowerPoint. 

Wait, there's more!

You can even create Infographics and charts that you can share or even print. You can use the AI tool to ask it to generate and organize your data with any type of chart you can think of: bar, pie, pyramid, cycle, anything!

We know plenty of educators out there that have aesthetically beautiful presentations that truly capture the attentions of our students. While there are a number of other important parts to a successful lesson, we know that people are primarily visual creatures and I think this could help with that. Give it a try and let us know what you think below.