Thing 19: Prezi

I've heard of Prezi before, and I believe that I've seen one in action, but I've never used it to create a presentation yet.  My first thought was a positive one, in which they give free access to their product for teachers.  I love when companies give back to education!

My Prezi on Scoring in Tennis

I love the way Prezis look!  The fluid, smooth transitions look wonderful.  It gives the simple "slide show" an elegant look and feel.  Very much different from Powerpoint.  However, to get this great looking presentation, it requires a lot more input.  It probably took me at least 3 times the amount of time to create this Prezi as it would to put the same information into a Powerpoint.  I understand that it would get easier the more I use it, but whenever I'm making a presentation, I usually don't have tons of time to put into learning a new tool.

I also like that Prezi is web based.  Its easy to share and to always have available (given you have internet access).  There's no app to download or software to install.  Anyone in education has free access to this as well.  This also made it really easy to imbed a video into the presentation.  There was no awkward transition or changing the program during a presentation.  It was as simple as clicking.

I wonder how students who react to using this for their own presentations.  I often don't give kids enough credit for what they can accomplish.  I found the learning curve to using Prezi to be very steep.  If it would take the kids as much time to learn it as it took me, I don't think it would be a beneficial tool for them.  I could see upper high school kids using it to a better benefit than middle school kids.