Recently, at Caryl York's PD workshop, she recommended Prezi presentation software. After seeing it in action during her Workshop we thought it was well worth a look!
First of all, Prezi is available for free as long as you are willing to edit online. The basic package is somewhat unsuitable for Teachers because it lacks the ability to make your presentations private. The good news is that if you have access to an edumail account (or any email address with .edu in it) they offer a free upgrade to teachers and students.
We remind all CRTs that the DEECD has encouraged schools to supply CRTs who work for them on a semi-regular basis with an Edumail account so they can receive announcements and gain full access to Ultranet. Please visit the school you work for most and ask for them to supply you with one. If they are unaware of this memo (it went out a little while ago so newer members of staff may not be aware) you can find reference to this in the VAGO report, section 3.3. Please remember that schools are encouraged, not instructed, to supply you with an edumail account.
Free is always a bonus but we all know how "free" often works. It's a reduced-function copy of a premium piece of software aimed at the people who just can't pay 100's of dollars for the good stuff. The end result takes longer to produce and isn't as polished as the commercial version would be.
All of which isn't that good for teachers, let alone CRTs. You spend enough of your time on preparation as it is, the last thing you need is to stretch that out, and as a CRT you often need to be able to knock something out that's engaging and polished at a moment's notice.
So here's the good news!
Having never used the software before we took an opportunity to watch the basic tutorial videos on the Prezi website. We then selected one of the templates they offer, threw in a bit of text and 15 minutes later we had produced the above Prezi presentation!
Not only that but you'll notice that we were able to embed the presentation directly into our blog through their supplied embed code. You can also send links to Prezi presentations that you have set to Public for online viewing on the Prezi website. If you have a .edu email account, you can also download the presentation to run sans-Internet with the free education package.
The only "drawback" is that you must be online to create or edit your Prezi presentation.
Upgrading to the paid option for Educators ($59.00 US per year - 30 day free trial) upgrades your online storage to 2gb, gives you premium support and also lets you use Prezi Desktop to create and edit Prezi Presentations when you aren't connected to the Internet.
The web-based Prezi editor works on our Windows computer and our Android tablet through a browser and on the iPad (through the Prezi viewer app). Prezi Desktop is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux operating systems. We have also played back Prezi presentations on our Windows computer, on android devices (through the standard browser) and also on an iPad (using the free Prezi viewer from the app store). It is a pretty versatile tool for your toolbox!
Just what can you do with Prezi?
A very intriguing tool.. I can't wait to set it to task in the classroom!
It's free and highly functional tool that's actually pretty easy to use. The flow you can get out of a presentation makes it a lot more engaging than a "slideshow" too. Very well suited to CRTs who often have to be more engaging than a regular teacher just to keep the kids on side and behaving well.
In our opinion it's well worth a look and you can check it out at http://prezi.com/index/
Regards,
Mel.
It's free and highly functional tool that's actually pretty easy to use. The flow you can get out of a presentation makes it a lot more engaging than a "slideshow" too. Very well suited to CRTs who often have to be more engaging than a regular teacher just to keep the kids on side and behaving well.
In our opinion it's well worth a look and you can check it out at http://prezi.com/index/
Regards,
Mel.
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