Prezi is a presentation software program that would give Power Point a run for it's money. Prezi claims to create "Game changing presentations online." As with all of the other tools that I have evaluated, Prezi is a free online software program. There are other Prezi packages that offer more bells and whistles that you can pay for but the basic Prezi account is free.
I tried making my own Prezi presentation this afternoon on Self-efficacy for my Psychology 20 class. I didn't find Prezi as easy to work with as Power Point, mostly because it isn't linear, which is one of the benefits of the program but also something that makes it a bit less intuitive to work with.
I found myself struggling a bit with the zoom effects, not really sure how the end result would turn out until I constantly checked the 'show' feature. It took me roughly three hours to put together the presentation at the bottom of the page. I am sure for future presentations that it will take me considerably less time as my learning curve was high. I read (after I made the presentation) a good tip to put the rough sketch of your presentation together before putting it on Prezi so that you don't get lost in the program. A good idea that I will definitely follow next time, as the first round through was a 'make it up as you go' type of presentation. Perhaps I would also suggest for people who are not use to the software to copy a re-usable presentation and go from there, just to see what it is all about:, although you could wade through many low quality presentations in the re-usable section as well.
I do wonder if students will be as motivated as I was to learn the program. I had a fairly high self-efficacy in terms of being able to learn the software but I would suggest that many of my students wouldn't. When I try to get my students to learn Photostory instead of Power Point they whine and complain and many don't hand in the Photostory assignment because they don't want to learn the software. I would suggest that learning Prezi is much tougher than learning Photostory, so I am a little fearful of requiring my students to use Prezi simply because I teach all online learning classes and without someone right there in the class to help then with their questions they may get frustrated and quit.
Having said that I do think that I will use Prezi for a class presentation although I would not likely use it without adding sound to it. I would likely use Camtasia or something similar to talk the students through the presentation. Someone in a face to face class wouldn't likely need that option.
Benefits of Prezi:
- Creates an exciting presentation interface that is not linear.
- Allows one to embed media and pictures easily.
- The Basic account is free.
- One can send a link to the presentation so that people can view the presentation together.
- Up to 10 people can edit the same Prezi together
- In order to add narration you would have to use a different program.
- The viewer can get motion sickness from all of the moving on the screen if overused.
- Takes a bit of time to learn how to use especially because it is not linear.
- Easy to make a presentation that is overrun with clutter.
- Is Prezi a tool for those bored with Power Point and will it soon hit the shelf as an overused tool as well?
Resources:
Good classroom assignment using Prezi to present their work in photography.
17 interesting ways to use Prezi in the classroom.
Interesting Blog on Power Point versus Prezi
My first Prezi on Self-Efficacy:
2 comments:
I share your ambivalence about Prezi. I think it's a really neat presentation interface -- quite novel and engaging the first few times you see it. But I fear that if it becomes as ubiquitous as PowerPoint, the zoom effects will start to grate on the audiences. For my money, it's great for approaching things a little differently for now, but I'm also betting it will wear out. That being said, it isn't actually new. It's been around for quite awhile, and seems to have a loyal following.
One of the things I found useful for using it was to think of my material as a concept map, rather than as a presentation. I lay out material according to topics and subtopic clusters and then add the navigation when I'm done with the layout. I'm not sure if that would fit your style, but it seemed to work for me.
And I agree about the learning curve. It's a different way of thinking about presentation layout, so it takes awhile to get used to it.
By the way, that's a really good presentation on self-efficacy!
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