Prezi

http://prezi.com/mzjpkudk1elw/visual-literacy/
Check out this link to visit my Prezi (For some reason it wouldnt embed correctly).

Many of my classmates in a different class used Prezi last week as a new technology to explore. This week I chose to do the same. Prezi reminds me of a PowerPoint presentation, but more confusing. Maybe I'm used to PowerPoint more, but it was even difficult to start creating a Prezi. After watching the tutorial numerous times I decided to add my own information. Last week I made a website on visual literacy, so I decided to use that information for my presentation.

Prezi is an interesting tool because it's a new way to present information. I learned about Prezi a couple weeks ago, but never had the chance to explore it. After seeing other presentations I realized that students might like this more than a boring PowerPoint presentation. Prezi presents the information in interesting ways, making it seem like a short video.

Im still a little bit confused, but I finally figured out how to input my information into the Prezi. Instead of having a toolbar for creating and editing there is a little bubble in the corner instead. This bubble is pretty much your editing tool, and it doesnt seem to have as many features as a regular toolbar would. After putting in my information, I realized that I had to make a 'path'. This 'path' is the order in which your slides will show up (this took me awhile to figure out). Unlike PowerPoint, you dont put your information on one slide, but rather put EVERYTHING on a background grid-like page, and then you click on your information one by one in whichever order you want to present it. I thought this was super confusing. At one point I was looking for a new grid sheet for my next slide, not realizing that everything went on this one. After making my path, and watching my Prezi I had to go back and edit it multiple times because some of my other information was in the way when the slide came up. I had to make sure my information was spread out enough so that it wouldnt show in other slides. This got super frustrating and annoying because in a PowerPoint I would never have to worry about something like this. Finally, all my information was in, my path was correct, and the slides showed up okay. I wanted to add pictures but I was already annoyed and frustrated at this point.

Dont get me wrong, I like Prezi but I didnt enjoy creating one. Personally I believe that a project like this, or very similar to this, would be extremely beneficial to an entire class of elementary kids anywhere around fourth and fifth grade. I think that at this age, children are old enough to understand how to use technology in order to get a thought across and even to use technology to teach about a certain topic. Allowing the children to explore a new technology will help them out in the future, as well as their classmates because they are also getting exposed to the technology when the students present theirs.