Prezi is a presentation tool (similar to Power Point). But instead of following a linear format, Prezi viewers can choose the part of the presentation that they wish to see and zoom in – then zoom out to see an overview of the whole topic.
On the Prezi showcase board, there are some education examples but most of the ones I’ve seen are examples of secondary topics. I wondered if there is a value in using this in primary education, particularly for storytelling?
The screenshot below shows the overview of Miss Muffet. If you click on the picture, you can view the actual presentation on the Prezi site (or click on this link http://prezi.com/105574/). Click on the arrows in the bottom right corner of the screen to see the presentation in order, or zoom in (click on a word or picture) and zoom out (double click elsewhere on the screen) to visit the images and text in any order.
If you watch a Prezi on your computer screen and click through quickly, it can be a bit nauseating as it zooms from one topic to another. But when you are using it with a class on an IWB, this wouldn’t be a problem as the pace of the presentation would be much slower.
Like a lot of people, I have an aversion to using Power Point or other static presentations on an IWB. But I think Prezi could be a bit different as it offers choice and ‘links’ which make it much more interesting and interactive. It’s also possible to use it a bit like Deep Zoom and hide images and text by making them very small then zooming in.
Possible other educational uses:
Asking children to prepare presentations/ interactive tutorials using the software
Showing the layers of the earth, the food chain, etc by using the zooming feature
Using it with a desktop overlay function to predict the order of something e.g. events in the Civil War, sentence structure – then playing the presentation to see if they are correct. I’ve played with a basic sentence structure example here.