Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
VCASMO is “online presentation” tool that supports building a new communication experience based on “multimedia + slide”. It is the best that I’ve seen [Zentation up to now] for mashing up a synchronized video-slide/Powerpoint presentation. For my ENTR200K students, think seriously about using VCASMO for your MidTerm presentations next Friday. The sample below, is from the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship Lecture Series and Paul Allen, founder WorldVitalRecords.com making a presentation. Hank
I could see this as a great tool for professors. They would be able to deliver a class lecture and seamlessly integrate their PowerPoint slides right into it. A lot of times when professors try to record lectures for say distance learning courses, they will try to have the slides displayed on a screen behind them, but you can never read the slides.
I had a professor that was experimenting with a method to possibly deliver his class online. I don’t know what the specific resources were that he had at his disposal, but the department had an A/V lab to help professors record presentations. Anyway, the video would show him delivering his lecture and then it would switch to the PowerPoint slides being displayed on the screen. It ended up looking like a poorly edited documentary on PBS or something. Did I also mention I had to download RealPlayer to watch it.
I think these guys get it right as well: http://omnisio.com/
After watching about half of the above video and seeing the slides go out of sync with the talk, I’m certain that omnisio.com is far better.
I don’t know much about either VCASMO or omnisio, but I did watch a video for each and they idea of both of them is relatively the same and I think it is a great idea and will be taking off very quickly. As for which is better, I think it is just a person perferance.
I didn’t watch all the way through the presentation posted, but after getting through the first few slides it did seem that the presentation was out of sync. By half-way through it seemed like the slides were changing more at a regular interval rather than with what was being said. Maybe they didn’t sync the video and slides correctly when it was posted? I’m not sure since I haven’t used the service, but just a thought.
As for this sort of technology as a presentation aid, I’m unsure how we could really make use of it for our presentations next Friday. It seems great after the fact, and I wished all of my professors would make use of something like this. The closest thing I’ve seen was one of my professors using Adobe’s Acrobat Connect Pro to teach when out of town as well as record lectures for later review. I have to say that I loved those lectures far more than reviewing more power points or trying to watch another lecture video.
How to use it on Friday? Run your video with your entrepreneur interview and show slides at the same time with main points and most interesting facts or ideas. In this way, people will get the most from your presentation, i.e. both the interview progress and the way you structured it and the ideas you have extracted from it.
I am not sure if I would really use this tool. I have looked into the ZOHO presentation tool and its looks pretty neat too. The other presentation tool, OMNISIO, looks good too. I think that none is better than the other. One has few advantages while the other has some. They are situation dependant.
I personally feel that the speaker is a distraction because rather than paying attention to the slides, I am more focused on the speaker’s movements. In a different scenario, such as a demonstration, I believe the implementation of this technology would prove to be quite beneficial.
If I were allowed to use this in class instead of doing live presentations I would. I do not do so well giving presentations becasue I am usually very nervous and not concentrating on the material, rather, I am concentrating on how I sound, the people watching me, etc. This tool would help me out a lot, especially if I go into the international scene.