Get out of the Powerpoint Rut.
Time to change
Okay so Powerpoint and other presentation software are great tools. We use them and have had lots of fun developing presentations to support lectures, conference speeches and workshops. We have also used Powerpoint in particular as a graphical manipulation tool with Indigenous young people, with great success. We like Powerpoint! Image right - a graphic created in Powerpoint from a participant in a workshop on Boigu Island Torres Straits.
But, ............. it's time to think about the qualities of web 2.0 tools which can enhance the teacher's capacity to help children learn and to help children produce new interactive products and to use such products as tools in face-to-face or online events.
We also want to erode the conclusion that Powerpoint or other brand of software, as linear presentations are a genre of some value for assessment products. They are a very poor genre for academic work and we hope you will consider some alternatives.
Web 2.0 erodes the metaphor for the presentation genre
There are many definitions of what web 2.0 means and no doubt we are probably heading for web 3.0. What we want you to consider are the qualities of web 2.0 that can change how you facilitate student learning.
- Interactivity where the reader controls the pathways
- some writer generated pathways
- lots of media
- non-linear options and
- multi-platform sharable products
- community around products and community around the writers of products and users of the software.
This is one example of an alternative
We know there are many and we may add to this page as we build up these ideas but, for now, we are using this example to change the metaphor of presentation and to introduce a new idea about using presentations as learning tools, collaborative tools and a genre for products that demonstrate what has been learned.
Prezi
Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them. The result: visually captivating presentations that lead your audience down a path of discovery. Pasted from <http://prezi.com/about/>
Features of Prezi
It enables a non linear presentation format where the viewer creates a big picture and zooms down into detail.
Visually rich with graphical layout and included media - zooming and twisting is quite attractive as a way of drilling down into ideas that belong to a big picture.
You can build a path through a prezi for your reader or they can move around the prezi in any way.
Seem to be able include video by streaming in from You Tube or you can add in video directly.
Can include PDFs and other media.
You can collaboratively develop a prezi online with a distributed team.
You can present online or offline.
Quick overview
Play the video about Prezi on the front page http://prezi.com/
Use this prezi about prezi's to get the general idea.
A prezi about the features of Prezi. Excellent snapshot of the commonly used features in a Prezi. Link: http://prezi.com/rhmtbwld0cvy/academy-10-ways-to-say-it-with-prezi/
Some examples to stimulate creative ideas for applications in learning
Simple Prezi but really powerful use of Video. Likely student response to an assignment.
BioGasol's 2nd generation bioethanol technology
Example of pretty complete concept map of a topic. Neat graphical presentation. Graphics and text presentation.
Neat linear presentations graphically presented 30 things about staff - a presentation about herself as an ice breaker in a class. Some are quite linear presentations and others more creative. Looks like it might have been an exercise ina training workshop. net to see the sophistication produced in these first attempts. To see them search the Prezi site for "30 things about me".
About using twitter to talk about mathematical concepts. Quite creative. Has a video embedded in it as an introduction.
Crowd accelerated video innovation
Chris Anderson uses this prezi in a TED talk. Worth looking at it and then checking out the use of a prezi during a presentation.
http://on.ted.com/8Z3n
Excellent combination to look at, to construct the notion that a presentation is about talking to people and the software produces a visual aid for the speaker and audience. The software product is not the presentation.
The support and cost
Communities around the product look pretty robust. Good training materials.
Free version appears to have all the features but keeps a Prezzie Logo on the finished products. Can have up to 100MB of storage on Prezi for free - pay $59 USD for space, some privacy controls and your own logo to replace the prezi logo.