Free Resource from the CRT Resource Challenge!

Initially I was going to use "Prezi" as my "one thing" for the CRT Resource Challenge.  The idea was an extension of my observations on how many teachers focus on classroom technology as a tool to teach with and not really the side of how to use it to make their own lives easier.  We do this with Laptops all of the time in making handouts, typing reports and so on but I don't see a lot of teachers extending this concept to other in-school technologies.

For those of you who don't know, Prezi is an alternate offering to take the place of PowerPoint and other presentation software designed to fill its own little niche of making Motion one of the central capabilities.  As such it makes it very easy to incorporate with a simple and easy to use interface that does a LOT of the work for you.

Some of you may have seen us use Prezi before on this blog on our VIT CRT Networks page on this blog as well as the Cycle of Professional Learning presentation we use on occasion.  It's clear that one of the advantages of Prezi is that you can embed it in web pages to make animated presentations in your blogs etc to "spice things up a bit".  This is how we've been using it for a while now.

In Victoria though, CRTs often don't get access to classroom ICT resources like Interactive Whiteboards.  More and more frequently there's no "regular old whiteboard" in the class and, even though many IWBs are made to be used as a "ROWB" you get yelled at for doing so.  Initially I wanted to use this year's CRT Resource Challenge to explore how you could use an IWB as a simple projector to "fill the gam" of the missing ROWB instead of resorting to butcher's paper.

So my initial plan was to make a "digital Bag of Tricks" of Prezi presentations on various things that could be strung together to form complete lessons when I needed them, using Prezi and a bit of planning to avoid the morning scrabble for butchers paper and an easel to hang it from.  In the end I thought this was a little broad for the Resource Challenge and went with something else but my "trial run" is still ready to go so I thought I would share it.

How it works;

Prezi can be played from your own Laptop in two ways;  Either through your web browser from an online source OR through a self-projecting program that Prezi creates from your presentation.

On Tablets (such as an iPad or Android tablet) an app is available that will show the Prezis from an online source and then "remember them" so you can play them back offline.

Like 99% of other presentation programs you just use the arrow keys to move through the presentation (or the on-screen arrows included for the Prezi on touch-screens or via mouse).

So, here we go!  This is designed as a Literacy lesson for students already familiar with rhyming and basic forms of poetry.

You can find the lesson plan on our online storage here.

• The .zip file contains the Lesson Plan as well as the Prezi files (55.5mb).
• The .PDF file is the lesson plan ONLY.

You can play the Prezi directly from the internet here (using a web browser for computers OR the appropriate Prezi app for your iPad/Android tablet).

In the downloadable plan you will find the projector files for this Prezi so you can run it from a flash drive on any relatively modern computer (Windows or Mac).  This will still require an internet connection to play the Prezi because the Wonky Donkey video is on YouTube.

Being able to run from a flash drive, Prezi also opens an interesting advantage.  Do you have a student who's ahead of the curve and needs some classroom differentiation?  With a little guidance, this can deliver a full lesson of your devising through a single computer for that student needing a little more of a challenge than the rest of the class.  The pre-prepared Prezi can essentially run the activity with minimal input from you allowing you to challenge that student while focusing primarily on the rest of the class.

Do you teach in a distance-education setting?  Prezi also has a handy "present online" function.  Your students can open the prezi from an online source (you send them the link) and it runs much like a webinar.  You can advance the presentation using your own computer while talking to your students through a voice chat program.

Passing on Prezi to your Students;

Prezi can also be used by students to create class presentations.  Being so easy to manipulate, it allows even quite young students to think cinematically about their work and explore creating an EXPERIENCE instead of a slide.  To consider how the motion and different formats can be used to generate a "feel" to a presentation to help their class mates connect with the topic.

Are they doing a presentation on Flies?  You could bounce a little randomly around the screen with arrows with Fly pictures on them so you get the feel of a fly buzzing around the room.

Something to give your students options with which to expand their own horizons AND create something they are truly proud of.

Regards,

Mel.