As an educator, I am always
looking for new and exciting ways to display information. I consider myself
proficient with PowerPoint, but that isn't always the most exciting way for
students to receive information and I began to wonder if there were other ways
I could do my presentations. My friends are always telling me about Prezi, so I
figured I would go ahead and give it a true.
Prezi is a self-proclaimed presentation
website, that is more engaging for your viewers and more interesting as they
attempt to retain the information being shown. The tagline of the website is: “Become a rockstar presenter with Prezi presentation
software.” This site does not seem to be geared towards one professional group
(i.e., business, education), but seem to invite anyone who is looking to
present something in a different manner than basic slides. When I signed up for
my account, there was a pull-down for teachers as well as students, so it seems as
if Prezi is trying to be all-accompanying across professions and life
experiences.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Prezi is found at www.prezi.com and to create an account you have
to click “get started.” Once you click that, it will offer you four options:
Public (free); Enjoy ($10 per month); Pro ($20 per month); or Teams (volume-based
pricing).
I am interested in the free
option the most, because I want to know what tools educators can use without
spending a monthly fee. As I make my account, it gives me a list of items that
I get by choosing the free option.
My only option on the free
version is to “create, collaborate, and present on prezi.com,” which is all I
really need anyway.
At least it’s polite.
While some online web
applications have great integration with Bloom’s Taxonomy, there is little thought
process being involved besides understanding and remembering. Prezi is a
presentation website and it does not have ways to activity engage your students
throughout (such as SmartNotebook, which allows for student interaction throughout
a presentation). Prezi is a great way to get the information across, but
besides that, it can’t stand alone and offer much in the realm of critical
thinking. If you wish to reach the other four levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy using
Prezi, it has to be paired with activities outside of this application.
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| Bloom's Taxonomy |
When considering this
application with the Technology Integration Matrix, the main levels of
integration into the curriculum are going to be Entry and Adoption. If a
teacher uses this presentation website and gives students information about the
next unit, then they are simply using this tool to deliver content to students.
I feel as if I should note that delivering information and lecturing to a class
should not always be considered a bad thing. If you are taking your students in
a new direction (for example, if you are starting a narrative unit and a mass
majority of your students have never heard the terms and concepts associated
with that before), then you have to give your students enough of a context for
them to be successful. Lecturing should be used purposely in your classroom to
ensure your students are getting the necessary information. Adoption can be
applied with Prezi if a teacher instructs her students to create a presentation
using this application and deliver it to the class. That way, the students are
becoming knowledgeable in a certain subject area and have to present it in a
way that their classmates will understand.
As an English teacher, I can
see myself using this presentation website to introduce a new novel. I believe
it is important to spend some time getting to the know author of any text and
this would be a fun, engaging way for students to receive that information. If
I were going to teach One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Next, then I could present a Prezi on Ken Kesey and all of the things that influenced
the writing process for that novel.
Prezi is set up a lot like
PowerPoint, in that the information is presentation on the left-hand side in
the form of “circles” (slides). The order of the circles can be moved around
within the presentation, along with the size and shape itself (you’re not stuck
with a circle). Once you get to the main page, it’s pretty self-explanatory
about how to create the presentation. Just as you would using PowerPoint, you have
your main slide with the title and what you’re going to be doing, then you have
your supplementary slides that help you explain the concept even more.
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| Main view of the presentation when you build it |
Something that is really
cool about Prezi are two tabs located at the top of the screen: “Insert” and “Customize.”
The insert table lets you do just that and lets you add a lot of different
things: photos, symbols, files. Customize is mainly for the overall layout of
the presentation, but if you want to make yours look unique, then that’s a good
tool for you!
Overall, Prezi is a good
tool for the classroom if you are looking for another way to present
information and content. It is a bit more exciting than using PowerPoint might
be, but it will get information across to your students in the same manner. The
biggest downfall to Prezi is that it has to have internet connection in order
for you to view the presentation. If the WiFi in your building isn’t always
reliable, then it might be a bit tricky to create an entire presentation this
way (versus PowerPoint, which just needs a computer). It’s definitely a fun way
to create the information and I think students would like the more visual
aspects, but like PowerPoint, it cannot stand on its own and there should be
more integration with other activities within the classroom.
