Sometimes nature has a way of pointing you in the direction you need to go. Take this week’s post. I’ve known about Prezi for a few years but it seems that everywhere I’ve gone recently, somebody has mentioned the site. I figured it was time to feature the site on the 8 Blog.
Prezi is a really unique presentation application that breaks away from stale PowerPoint slides. At its simplest, PowerPoint offers users a rectangular canvas in which to display bulleted lists, graphics and text. Sure, people can add in transitions, animations or sounds, but the end result still looks like a bunch of rectangles that a presenter plods through. Prezi offers something completely different. Instead of rectangles, envision a presentation landscape where a presenter can zoom in
to and hop from topic to topic like a plane flying from destination to destination on a round the world journey. The most unique part of Prezi is its user interface. Most software uses some type of menu-driven system to allow users to make changes. Prezi uses a series of concentric circles to let you move an object, change its size or rotate it. It takes some getting used to at first but, after a while, seems completely logical and fluid.
Consider using Prezi as an alternate way of giving a lecture. You can also have your students use Prezi to create a presentation to share with classmates. Since Prezi lives online, it can be accessed from any computer with Internet access and can be embedded in loads of other sites. A Prezi presentation can even be downloaded so it can be run in locations without Internet access. Check out this short Prezi I created that briefly explains the history Web 1.0. Need some help getting started? Be sure to check out the following introductory tutorial from the people at Prezi.
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Hey, Ollie. I used prezi and Glogster with my Freshman comp students last semester. They had to write a “primer” on a chapter of A Whole New Mind (by Daniel Pink) for their classmates and share it. I also suggested Voice Thread, Animoto and a pecha kucha. The kids like Glogster and Prezi better.
I have a pretty good prezi on Using resources somewhere. Want a sample?
I’d love to share some other examples. Include a link to your Prezi for folks.
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