Keynote vs. Powerpoint

In addition to iLife, iWork is another suite of applications offered by Apple. This suite is very affordable for a school license (only a few hundred dollars). iWork includes Pages, which is a combination of Word and Publisher put together. Numbers is a spreadsheet program. Although functioning much like Excel, it allows for easier design of certain documents. Keynote is the 3rd component and perhaps the most powerful of the iWork suite. It is most often compared to PowerPoint. All the iWork applications come with some great templates that can be easily used by students or teachers to help them format their work more easily.

For those that have used it, Keynote is frequently said to be more powerful than PowerPoint. Their functionality is very similar in many ways. PowerPoint can insert media (photos, movies, sounds, etc.), but it isn't always smooth or easy. PowerPoint is designed and heavily used for text-based presentations.

Keynote is much more media-based. It allows for the fluid inclusion of media in many different forms, signifying the major difference from PowerPoint. Keynote smoothly incorporates many types of media in a polished look. It also has some very nice, professional-looking templates. And the difference plays out in important ways when we start talking about engaging students during lessons. It enables teachers to access the many digital resources available to them in our modern digital environment. And again, as previously mentioned, more time can be spent on content than troubleshooting or trying to polish the actual technology.

For example, teachers may want to show a clip from a video on the internet. They can bring that video into iMovie and edit it to the spot where they wish it to start and end. Then they can insert it directly into their presentation. Students do not lose time while the teacher cues the video/DVD but it is readily available, smoothly integrated into the presentation.

Keynote also allows the easy conversion of presentations into podcasts. This can be very useful for absent students or just allowing students to review their notes at home. Below is a presentation of our new campus as depicted by our architects. I already had the slide but in less than 2 minutes I converted it to a short movie to show the different aspects of the campus. (Note: I did not include audio but I easily could have.)

The ease of working with multimedia within Keynote or in other forms is beneficial for students and teachers to improve their lessons and classroom engagement.