Group 3 Tools - PowerPoint Presentations and Prezi's

The use of visual presentations of content is not a new or revolutionary concept in schools. From the development of textbooks with information to the advent of the Overhead Projector (OHP) to the dawn of data projectors, presenting data to a classroom has become more and more simple with these ‘appliances,’ for want of a better word.

Of course, with data projectors, the ability to have information change automatically and digitally on command becomes the most important facet of the presentation design. I believe that some teachers can let it become the focus of learning design and once again, this is an example of Technology overshadowing the pedagogy and content parts of learning experience creation.

Of the tools we looked at in Group 3, PowerPoint appears to be the least interactive. It has been around since 1995 (18 years ago) and in that time has been misused, undervalued and abused. Typical slideshows are often very, very dull, have too much or too little text in them, or are packed full of static images that do little to engage or reinforce knowledge in students.

In the time that PowerPoint has been around, embedding has become a major part of the Internet, and indeed the whole computer experience. PowerPoint has also adapted as a program and is now able to be developed for students to interact with on both a classroom and individual level. There are now online tools that can embed PowerPoint files in online spaces.

There are options to integrate video, audio, Internet and basically anything you want (without letting the file get as big as a library.) It however, is still limited by its very straightforward layout and inability to focus on the big picture; rather the discrete slides are all that can be focussed on.

Whenever I have used PowerPoint, I have always used it as a forward-moving presentation and not worried about making it very interactive. I believe now that if I can make my PowerPoint’s more interactive and engaging, on both a classroom and individual level, I can achieve greater learning outcomes.

This is where Prezi’s supersede the traditional PowerPoint presentation. Prezi came about in late in the first decade of the 21^st century and enable presenters to create highly engaging and interactive presentations using the power of flash. Herb (2013) suggests, “By staying current with new technology, more often than not your students will appreciate the change of pace from the tools they are seeing.” 

In my interactions with Prezi, I have found the interface for their creation to be highly enjoyable and functional, whilst giving me the flexibility to create practically anything I wanted. I had immense fun in creating the following Prezi. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but I learnt a vast array of techniques that I can use in the future on Prezi and I believe I will use the tool a lot!

The idea of the zooming in and out and creating the presentation on one page with ability to focus on different things is ingenious, and I believe gives presenters the opportunity to focus on the big picture and move in – this suit learners of a global approach but still has the functionality to support the opposite and let sequential learners sequence their learning.

PowerPoint presentations have many uses in a music classroom; here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with that are interactive and engaging:

• Can be used to create Quizzes
• An interlinked diagram with slides referring to the parts of the diagram clicked. Maybe a diagram of an instrument?
• Well-designed ‘traditional style’ PowerPoint presentations are still effective if good design principles are followed. An excellent presentation on PowerPoint design can be found here.

Prezi is limited in options for use, but its main use is for interactive presentations online. Online multimedia can easily be added to it and its use of flash makes it ridiculously engaging. It should be noted that PowerPoint presentations can be imported to Prezi and made into exciting shows.

The following SWOT and PMI analyses are a summation of this reflection into presentations.

PowerPoint PMI

Plusses

• As it is offline, can be used anywhere, anytime. (On a computer)
• Lots of help available online and in hard copy. Books and classes are made specifically for PowerPoint.
• Can be very interactive – this makes for good engagement (see minuses)
• Can easily add multimedia
• Very helpful for sequential learners in simple forms

Minuses

• Can be extremely tedious to make interactive.
• Very static without multimedia
• Can become very big with multimedia and scores of slides
• Detracts from a global view of a concept/idea/any knowledge, rather sequential

Interesting

• Visual displays seem to help reinforce information. If students have individual copies of presentations chances are information may be retained.
• Can be exported and become online Prezi’s
• Many ways to use it – Individually as a presentation or as an interative activity, classroom presentation/activities

Prezi SWOT

Strengths

• Engaging and interactive
• Used correctly, is extremely aesthetically pleasing
• Animation adds a lot of excitement
• Easy and enjoyable to use, both for students and teachers

Weaknesses

• As it is flash, can be very big in file size. This hampers loading time depending on bandwidth
• Can only be used as a presentation, not very interactive in other ways other than presenting information.
• Animation can become nauseous – going around and around in circles
• Web based. Requires Internets!

Opportunities

• Multimedia addition creates a whole new level of interaction and reinforces the point of information.
• Students can have a very engaged learning experience creating their own Prezi. They will enjoy the technology and it can help reinforce content.

Threats

• Copyright issues – as with all online tools.
• Students using it to create a presentation may be overawed by the online software – TPCK Issue

References

Herb, J. (2013). Prezi – Advantages and Disadvantages. Retrieved from http://instructionaltechtalk.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-prezi/