Prezi as a tool for interactive presentations

What is Prezi?

Source: 

What is Prezi? The Official Intro Video. Retrieved from

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhqD0hNx4Q

Prezi is an online tool for presentations similar of powerpoint but much more creative and interactive. This tool you can do it online for free if you choose the basic prezi (100MB), there’s a world of different types of presentations in this tool but you have to invest with some money. However if you are a teacher or a student you can get the license for using Prezi Education just have to register with your school/university email account in order to be accept. Once accepted the Prezi offers you more space (500MB) for free.  

Prezi is developed in Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR, which means that is compatible modern computers and web browsers.

Different users of prezi give some examples of disadvantages and advantages of using this tool in educational presentations:

# Advantages:

• “visual focus
• nice macro layouts and views
• cloud-desktop interface very handy
• sure to impress some audiences
• quite easy to use
• big bonus: the company is very nice to educators – you can download a free desktop version (with 500MB of memory)
• relatively easy to “Prezify” old keynote or powerpoint slides – I converted some old slides and it was seamless (though, you have to go from pdf to Prezi – which creates within-slide limitations)
• handles images beautifully” (teppo, 2011)

# Disadvantages:

• to use more tools, be more creative on your presentation and get more space you need to pay for it;
• to create a prezi presentation you always need to have internet access as well as if you want to present or to work within the classroom (for example);
• We must be creative but not putting into question the purpose of the presentation. because as this tool is very interactive tends to attract the attention of the dynamics of the presentation and not students' attention to the content.

Prezi as a Multi-task function tool:

Indeed there’s no one way to use this Tool in Education. Let’s see some example from different perspectives:

• Prezi for simple assessments  in early elementary schools:

“A fun way to review a concept or check for comprehension is to create a simple assessment in Prezi. Insert a question, then have the students use thumbs up or down to vote, or do a quick pair-share. Then, let a student push the next arrow to zoom across the screen and check if their responses are correct.

To see if my younger students were starting to understand the function of a motor, I created a quick Prezi called “Does it have a motor?” I embedded five or six YouTube videos featuring quick clips of everyday objects in motion: a drill, a bowling ball, a fan, a kitchen mixer, a bicycle… Underneath each video it said, “Does this ____  have a motor?”

We played each video and observed the object in motion. Then students voted yes or no with thumbs. Then, we clicked the next button to reveal the answer. After the first two videos, the answer screen would also include a follow-up question or two. “What does the motor do on this object? How does using a motor in this object help people?” It was a fun review for the kids and an easy way for me to gauge whether or not the lessons we’d been working on were sticking or not.”

Zoltan Radnai, 2011

• Prezi with 10 different people working on the same prezi presentation in real time:

In my opinion could be useful for group work online to prepare a presentation.

How to do it?

Source: Prezi-Meeting. Retrieved from youtube

• Prezi Education

“Both teachers and students have become numb to conventional classroom presentations, where they’re confronted with slide after slide containing too much information in quick, disjointed succession.

Prezi’s zooming canvas opens up the classroom to active learning and interactivity, making lessons understandable, memorable, and fun.”

See the presentation of  “Put it that way”: http://prezi.com/xe5thxwgcxz1/if-you-put-it-that-way/#share_embed

Leticia B Cavagnaro, Stanford University

From my point of view Prezi is an innovative Tool. We can turn the presentations more interactive and attract the attention of the audience. However it’s not a tool to easy deal with since the first beginning. In other hand it is an opportunity to access it everywhere and also work in a group but you always need to have internet access.

Could be a useful tool but just in “places” with the required conditions.

If you need to send it or would like to save on your own computer you must transfer it to a PDF file.

For more informations about Prezi, articles, news, etc. please click here

Madalena Sousa

References:

- Briffa, M. (2010). Advantages and Disadvantages of using Prezi. Retrieved from http://prezi.com/jvaxfngkqhwc/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-using-prezi/  

- bjscholl33 (2011). How you can use Prezi in the classroom? Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7OsdIlmjm4http://prezi.com/prezi-for-education/

- Leticia B Cavagnaro, Stanford University. Retrieved from http://prezi.com/prezi-for-education/

- Prezi Meeting (2011). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEz2Yu25T7A

- teppo (2011). Prezi for academic presentations? Retrieved from http://orgtheory.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/prezi-for-academic-presentations/

- Zuiprezi (13th April 2010). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhqD0hNx4Q