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| Doing my presentation in class |
PREZI
As part of the Educational Technology course I took at Lorain County Community College I collaborated with another student to develop a presentation for other members of the class on a Web 2.0 tool suitable for use in education. Our tool was Prezi (http://www.prezi.com/). The assignment consisted of three parts: an entry on our topic for the class WIKI page, a presentation of the tool, and a reflection on the project.
Here is the page from the WIKI, which includes the presentation itself: http://fall2011edct-web20wiki.wikispaces.com/Prezi+Expert+Group
REFLECTIONThe expert group I worked with consisted of myself and John. As soon as I saw that Carmen also was working on Prezi, I told John about it and he contacted her to invite her to join us. She had reasons of her own for preparing her own presentation, and I look forward to seeing it.
Of course, we decided to do a Prezi on Prezi! The hardest part of the project was deciding what videos to use, both on the WIKI page and in the Prezi itself. There were SO many great examples. I did the draft of the WIKI page entry, which John approved. He did an outline for the presentation, which I organized into logical groupings. We decided to use the Prezi as an outline, leaving the exact wording to the presenter. For people who are comfortable ad-libbing, this is a great way to go. I believe that ad-libbed presentations are much more interesting and engaging than those read from a script.
The presentation was very well received, but I believe that is due to the strength of the product itself, and its ability to engage the viewer. We just scratched the surface of its capabilities – it is indeed a robust product. John and I discussed adding background music, but there was not time enough available to come up with either available music or the technique for applying music to the presentation. I can certainly think of several applications for Prezi in the classroom, particularly for giving the “bigger picture” – an overview of a research project, or an overview of the class itself, presented as an introduction, then modified as unit by unit is accomplished. This could give students a picture of where they are going and where they have been and how they all fit together.
I enjoyed working with John. Our styles seemed to complement one another and each of us made our own contributions and we shared the actual presentation creation part.
STANDARD
NETS-T 3.c: Evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks.
