Can Prezi be Pretty and Pretty Helpful in the Classroom? How my Perspective of Prezi Has Changed

For my Technology in Education class, I had to present on a technology tool that has been effective in a variety of classrooms for a variety of teachers. The tool in which I was assigned was Prezi.  Coming into this project, I did not have a good impression of Prezi. When filling out the survey for what tech tool I wanted to present, I saw the list and said to myself “I definitely do not want to present on Prezi,” however after realizing I had not heard of the other tools I decided that it could be slightly “easier” (I know this way of thinking is silly but we are over-worked Masters students after all) to present on a tool that I had some basic knowledge of. When we split up the work-load between the members of our group, one of the tasks that I was given was to find examples of how teachers use Prezi. Before really researching the tool I had counted it out as something not useful for me since I am not usually one to present with a PowerPoint, which I thought Prezi was very similar to, and from the Prezis I have seen, they are disorienting and over extravagant. However, after doing research and looking at Prezi examples my entire schema of Prezi was changed.

Firstly, there was so much creativity and imagery involved in the Prezis that I viewed. I found Prezi to be very visually stimulating. As a person who often does not stay very engaged when listening to information, the wonderful example Prezis that I found online made the material easier to enjoy. It was also informative to see the different examples that spanned across the disciplines. Overall from this project my knowledge of a tool, one in which I did not have much faith in, turned out to be something that I may learn from as a student and also may use in my classroom. I now see that I must research technological tools and actually engage with the tool to determine their purpose in my classroom, both with my students and as a teacher organizing my classroom, before ruling out its use. 

So for those of you who were like me who had unfortunate and negative experiences with Prezi, I encourage you to google something along the lines of “phenomenal Prezi presentations,” so that you can see just how far the capabilities of this tool extend if it is done well and with a lot of intent. For instance here is one of the Prezintations that turned me- 

https://prezi.com/veychlhwrdgz/putting-time-in-perspective/

The Prezi above on events in time, is one example in which a PowerPoint of another presentation tool would have not been useful. In order to discuss large increments of time, a large amount of slides would be necessary. However, Prezi allows one to see these large increments of time from a different perspective. I think when it comes to all tech tools, having an open perspective like the one that Prezi allows, is important for our education practices when it comes to choosing what tech we want to use in our classrooms.