Keynote

=Keynote =

Description
Keynote is a Macintosh-only program from Apple Computers that is used to create slide show presentations. The program is similar to Microsoft's PowerPoint, and any description of Keynote will inevitably involve comparing the two. Keynote can open and save Powerpoint files, although some functionality might be lost when saving presentations that use features only available in Keynote.

Keynote is currently sold as part of Apple's iWork package. It is not available separately. A trial version of the program, which can be used for 30 days, ships with all new Apple computers and can be downloaded from the Apple website.

One interesting extension of the program is Keynote Remote, which is an iPhone application that can control Keynote presentations from an iPhone or iPod touch over a Wi-Fi network.

History
Keynote was first introduced in 2003 and the current version is 5.0, with some minor patches available from Apple.com. The program is positioned as an equivalent to Microsoft Powerpoint.

Impact on Teaching and Learning
Keynote is a general platform on which teachers and students can create presentations of all kinds: ones that include sound and video, ones that include animation, and ones that include branching so that users can navigate to different slides depending upon what they click. By allowing so many different forms of content, and by allowing the content to be structured in so many different ways, Keynote is a powerful tool for designing and creating resources that are both appealing and educational.

As with Powerpoint, Keynote offers the ability to include compelling graphics in a presentation. There are over 40 themes available in Keynote, which allows the designer to ensure a consistent look and feel to presentations, and change those looks throughout the presentation very quickly. Keynote includes realistic three-dimensional transitions, such as a rotating cube or a simple flip of the slide Keynote also allows designers to include animations with a feature called Magic Move and also includes features that visualize data with animated 3D charts and flowcharts.

Practical Applications
Given the broad use of the program, the practical applications are almost limitless. While the metaphor of the slide show is central to understanding what Keynote can do, it is also important for designers to realize that the slide show only captures a portion of what is possible.

In a classroom setting, Keynote shares many of the advantages and disadvantages of other presentation software. If done well, a Keynote presentation can be part of an engaging classroom experience. Done poorly, a Keynote presentation can be no better than sitting through a painfully boring slide show with poorly chosen graphics and seemingly unending quotes. One of the main advantages of Keynote is that it allows designers to create more complex and dynamic content, making presentations more engaging.

Another way for educators to think of Keynote is as a way to store multimedia files. For instance, say you frequently use short videos in your class but do not always know which videos you will need at any given. Keynote could be used to make a single presentation that consolidates all of the videos (or quotes, audio selections, questions, or whatever content you want to track), which you can then access however you want to in class.

It is also possible to export to iDVD with clickability, meaning that the transition buttons on the presentation will work in a DVD. Designers should note that there can be a degradation of image quality when the keynote address is transformed to a DVD.

Create a Slide Show
One of the basic uses of Keynote in a classroom would be to create a slide show of pictures, movies, or audio that can be used as the backbone for a class lecture or discussion. If you're teaching anatomy, create a show of different parts of the body. If you are teaching the Hawaiian language, create a slide show that combines words and pictures and then give your students copies of the show to work through. If you are teaching History, create a slide show that contains famous speeches and play them during the class.

The program includes dual monitor support, which allows the presenter to show the presentation on an LCD screen and still see the desktop or notes from his or her laptop or presenter screen. One common reason that Powerpoint and Keynote presentations fails is because the presenter is too fixated on what the audience is seeing, and thus ends up reading along with everyone else rather than offering a real presentation.

Create a Handout
Any time that you create a slide show, but especially if it is used in conjunction with a lecture, you can also create handouts for your students. If done properly, the handouts will encourage students to take notes, to identify parts of pictures, or to write responses to questions posed in the slides.

[[image:Family_Feud.jpg width="320" height="240" align="right"]]Create a Game
A more complicated example of using Keynote is to create an interactive game for you class. Simple versions could be putting a question on one slide and the answer on the next slide.

More complex samples are available on the internet. Typically, the more complex examples are modeled on game shows like Family Feud and Jeopardy. Within this general structure, it becomes possible to create a highly interactive classroom activity where students can engage with the content. Groups can play against each other.

Answers can be collected through classroom clickers or shouted out.

Students themselves can be encouraged to create their own games as part of a larger classroom project, whether they are encouraged to create the content or the overall structure as well.

YouTube Videos
[|Creating a 3D Graph]

Created by
[|Brian Richardson], University of Hawaii at Manoa, October 1, 2009