Thing #11 Presentation Tools

Today I was experimenting more with creating presentations for my students. They are so used to multi-media presentations that prezi is a lot more appealing to them. Figuring out how the frames work together was a major learning curve for me. I finally figured out how rearrange the frames so that I can focus on the most important part of presentation one “step” at a time. I used a template that had a set of stairs leading to a door at the top. I think this non-linguistic representation is a great metaphor for the process that students take as they prepare their learning direction for college.

PowerPoint is so linear in comparison to prezi. I like the way prezi allows me to zoom into a particular part of the screen so that students are focused on just one area and not the whole page at one time. I think that is useful because students can get distracted by all the different choices afforded to them and with prezi their distraction can be dissipated.

    Using online tools like prezi allows me to create a new kind of presentation to share with students to connect with them my students on a new level.  I could see them using a project like this to pick their specific “steps” on their way to fulfilling their general education requirements. Each step could be the courses they specifically picked based on their interests. Hopefully a project like this could help them better understand and connect the steps of graduating with their actual choices.
    Zoom It is a great tool. I have used it to show students some specific points on graphs in math class.  Again it focuses in on a specific part of a picture and helps me keep students connected to the important part of a graphic that I have projected in my classroom.