Day 23: Microsoft Sway
On this lovely Thanksgiving Day, we spend time with family and friends and give thanks for all that is good in our lives. In honor of Thanksgiving, I wanted to create a something that captured what I’m thankful for and would showcase the huge number of pictures I take throughout the year. I used Sway from Microsoft to create a visual portfolio of pictures I took as part of my 2016 Photo A Day Challenge. (Learn more about the Photo A Day Challenge from blogger FatMumSlim here. Love, love, love it!!) Check out my 2016 portfolio below.
https://sway.com/s/NhgkpQI8sNDZ6CVp/embed
Sway is part of the Microsoft Suite of tools. It is a free app that requires a Microsoft account. With Sway you can create interactive portfolios, presentations, reports, blog posts and more. It took me about an hour to create my 2016 Photo A Day portfolio.
Here are a few of my favorite features.
- Use the templates for a quick design or customize settings including layout, font, and color pallet.
- Format your end product using a horizontal or vertical scroll.
- Group media and customize how they display and how your viewers can interact with the content.
- Add co-authors for collaborative work.
- Embed media such as images, video, audio, and text.
- Set up your final page to auto play or be completely interactive.
- Control access and editing rights.
- Share your creation through social media channels.
- Embed on your website or blog.
- Export your final product as a Word doc or PDF.
- Integrates with OneDrive.
The controls were fairly easy to use and intuitive. However, I did struggle a little bit with some of the formatting tools but I think that was more user error than tool issues.
There are many different ways you could use Sway in the classroom for yourself or with your students.
- Create a class website showcasing student work.
- Student Portfolios.
- Digital stories or interactive fiction.
- About Me projects and Resumes
- Visual research reports
- Visual lab reports
Sway allows you and your students to create unique interactive media. It is very similar to Adobe Spark Page. I have to play with each of them more to see which one I like better. I am an Adobe girl at heart but I am open to new tools. In short, Sway is fun and easy to use. I am very happy with my final portfolio and will use this tool again.
Have you used Sway? Share your ideas or creations in the comments!