Prezi is a new generational platform that uses the cloud to save your powerful looking presentations. Instead of creating hundreds of slides in PowerPoint, Prezi uses one large canvas that lets the user zoom in and out, almost infinitely. This lets people tell a story across a landscape of infinite space.
While fonts are limited and it takes some time getting used to, the benefit of using google image search to easily input any picture desired makes this program a goldmine. There is no copying or pasting in this program, just simply drag the image from the toolbar and you can have your way with it.
Many videos show a wheel that is used to help guide your editing. However, in the program I could never get this magical icon to pop up. I had to use everything manually, and with some time, was able to produce the same results without it.
Creating my first presentation, I was not able to use all the features Prezie offers, yet, I was still able to create a spectacular and captivating presentation that I believe is an accurate description of how the Americas became populated. The idea stemmed from questions my students had during a history lesson.
What the program did best was to allow me to use a map to tell a story. Often this is difficult when students have limited experience with the geographical references. Prezi becomes even more powerful in describing things in relation to each other. It is hard to describe a molecule or how infinite space is. This platform would be excellent at showing the planet and then zooming out to see the sun, solar system, milky way, next galaxies and so on. Working backwards one could show a human, then zoom in to the fingernails and show organ systems, organs, tissues, cells, molecules and then finally atoms. This process would really help students visualize how small/big things can be.
I truly think Prezie is a highly engaging tool that could be used in a wide variety to teach all kinds of concepts as well as have students make their own masterpieces. With the use of cloud technology, these student presentations can be shared more easily than a PowerPoint on a flash drive.
Lastly, I am using blogs in the classroom, and this format allows my students to create Prezies and post them to our class blog. I am really excited to see how this works out in the class. If you have any experience with this please let me know, I would love to hear your experiences and ideas!
The United States History - shortly told to explain the overall picture to my 4th / 5th grade combo class
I love the idea of students not having to keep up with a flash drive. Last year my students used the computer lab to build presentations and save them to a flash. The major problem we had was the program they used at school was not compatible with their home computers. The second problem was students could not keep up with the flash drives.
ReplyDeleteI know a program like Prezie would help with the flashdrive problem, but would it be compatible with all computers?
As long as the computer has internet it should be compatible with all computers. At least for viewing. It works on a cloud based program. ONly access to the website is needed. Their is a feature to download the program to the computer and it is compatible with both mac and pc. Not sure the download is needed though.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy allowing my students to make presentations. In the past they have used xtranormal. Unfortunately, this talk to text site is no longer available. It was easy to use and free.
ReplyDeletePrezi is like a 3D PowerPoint . I like it for its ease of use, however, you have to add all of your own multimedia resources.
I agree, but having google images as part of the medium really helps in finding those multi-media resources
DeleteI have to admit, my students have had an introduction of using this tool in the classroom for their semester presentation on Plate Techtonics and the results so far have been successful to the point they engage within the lecturing process, providing detailed feedback to get started with their projects in using the Prezi. I myself was also amazed at the gadgets and icons that can be used in making this powerpoint presentation.
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