Prezi Presentation Review

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"197","attributes":{"alt":"image of prezi menu","title":"prezi-menu","height":"150","width":"150","class":"media-image alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1525 media-element file-media-large"}}]]Prezi is online-generated presentation software. You don’t actually buy the program or download it. You do your work online and view it off the browser. Think PowerPoint, but rather than shifting robotically through static slides, Prezi presentations swoosh and zoom around a larger mural. As if a graphic organizer and a roller coaster got married and had a baby together. I created a Prezi presentation for an IPRC for a student of mine. The main image was a photograph of my classroom. That’s all you could see when the presentation started, but I had embedded tiny text, photographs, and videos into the larger image. For example, when I was talking about what kinds of books the student liked to read, the Prezi zoomed down to the book shelf where I had a video of the student reading and some text explaining his reading level and his interests. Each “slide” is a small part of the overall image. By “exploring” the room in this way, the participants at the IPRC were able to get a strong sense of how the student interacted in my classroom. Your students could also create Prezi presentations. It’s more than just a new way to create presentations. Because you can group ideas, look at multiple slides at the same time, and organize conceptually where the Prezi opens up new communication venues. It is a slide presentation for visual and kinesthetic learners. Ease of use: 2 Value/cost: 3 Application: 2 Final grade: level 2+ If not done tastefully, the whooshing around may make you feel a little queasy. That said, Prezi can be a lot of fun. Students will immediately understand the interface and after a few tries, so will you. Prezi presentations can be very powerful because of their ability to layout concepts.  It is free if you have an education-related email address. Jeffrey MacCormack is currently on leave from his classroom pursuing a PhD in education with a focus on autism. He is a member of the Simcoe County Teacher Local.