Week 7.1 Presentation Tools: Prezi

Prezi

Exploring the unique affordances of Prezi as a presentation tool, brought home for me points made by Mishra (2008) about the wider influence of IT on society. Methods used for storing and presenting information influence our relationship to information and shape our thinking processes. Viewed in this light, Prezi’s strength is in its visual, non –linear presentation of information (in comparison to linear presentation tools) which supports different ways of thinking about a topic.

Prezi allows users to present an overview of a complex topic, showing visually how the elements are related and linked while also including details and subtopics within each element.

I created a simple Prezi showing the structure of a narrative related to the tension.

Templates and Backgrounds

Templates and backgrounds allow authors to add communicate metaphorical meanings within a presentation. Prezi includes templates that show steps on a journey to show a process, climbing a mountain to represent reading a goal or trees representing growth etc.

Backgrounds may also be used to make literal links such as creating a solar system background for an informative presentation on a planet or an image of a science lab for a presentation about safe practises during hands on lessons.

Zooming and moving between frames– the zooming function allows authors to show an overview of concepts then zoom in ….and in focusing on more detail. I found that creating an invisible frame allowed me to start and finish the presentation with a wide overview.

This function encourages deeper investigation of a topic by communicating that the end point of any investigation is arbitrary – decided by time constraints and the needs of the audience. There is always more to know!  And unless the new information is paradigm shifting (requiring a restructuring of the original content) authors can add details as it they are discovered and zoom in ad infinitum.

This function would be useful for teaching a concept that will be revisited – such as narrative structure. By creating different paths through a base presentation a teacher could present the overview only in initial lessons. Then quickly revise the overview before zooming into the first level of detail in a subsequent presentation. This process could be repeated to very quickly revise the overview before delving deeper and deeper into the details. It would help students develop indepth knowledge while keeping an awareness of the larger organisational framework.

Care needs to be taken with moving from frame to frame as overdoing this can distract from the content of the presentation – much as using a range of different transitions in PowerPoint can. After some practise I found that zooming back out step in steps before moving to a new frame and starting with the widest view of the frame led to more coherence.

Adding images-Prezi allow authors to search for creative commons/available for commercial use images within the program. I have not found a function for accessing the source so images can be attributed correctly.

Adding Video – I found some a great example Prezi about media where YouTube videos of advertisements and

Adding audio – The use of audio in Prezi is useful for creating stand-alone presentations that could be embedded within a website, blog or wiki or saved and watched offline.

There are two options for adding audio –

1.       background music which plays through the entire presentation.

2.       Adding audio to specific frames which will play only when that frame is viewed.

For both of these options the audio needs to be uploaded from a computer’s hard drive. Prezi does not have the option of “ talking through” the presentation that PowerPoint does. This makes the process of adding audio more complicated as it involves recording, correctly naming audio files so that they can be added to the correct frame and then uploading to the presentation.

I found it a little tricky to find suitable creative commons background music. The best option was to create it myself using Garageband loops and smart instruments. After adding the loop I found that it would not loop – so perhaps I needed to make it longer ?  These files were uploaded in M4A format.

I can use “sound recorder” on my PC to record my voice. WAV file types are supported by Prezi. I’ve done this just for the title of the Prezi just to see how this function works.

Collaboration

I have not trialled the collaboration function of Prezi. From my experience with creating a fairly simple Prezi I think the non-linear format makes planning the content before beginning to create the presentation very important. I found that I wasn’t consistent with formatting ( dot points, fonts etc) and that I hadn’t ensured that the content within each zoom level matched. This could have been avoided with better planning.

Collaborating within Prezi would require some other space either face to face or online for discussing the structure before beginning to collaborate with this tool- in addition to the Prezi interface.

REFERENCES

Koehler, M., & Punya, M. (2008). Thinking Creatively.  Teachers as designers of technology, pedagogy and content [Video]. Retrieved January 18,2014 from http://punya.educ.msu.edu/2008/03/18/site-2008-keynote/