Advanced Prezis

In a couple of days, I will be delivering a presentation to the Connecticut Association of Business Officials on the use of educational technology in today's 21st century classroom.  I have been doing a lot of reading and also pushing myself to learn how to use Prezi in a more advanced way.  I got to searching around the web and found some really amazing creations using Prezi .  I thought that I would share a few of them for those who are looking to become better at creating zooming presentations.  Take a look at each one and notice how they are presented in a different way but each use the same basic skills of zooming, panning, and incorporating creative images to set the tone of the paths

Advanced Prezi 201

Brand D Prezume

PowerPoint Man

Now What?

I have been talking to several classes about using Prezi lately and it always seems to be difficult for students (and teachers) to really harness the power of Prezi without seeing it firsthand.  It is a very daunting task to create an amazing presentation from a blank canvas.  Using the Prezi Community you can find some excellent examples like the ones above and get some great ideas to use with your own presentations.  You can even get yourself off the ground by creating a copy of a public Prezi you like and then editing it with your own content.  If you are just getting started using Prezi check out the tutorial below which will walk you through the basics.

Prezi PowerPoint Import

As Prezi recently sailed past the 10 million mark for subscribers they offered up a revised import tool for PowerPoint presentations which makes it super easy to take your old presentations and "prezify" them with Prezi.  When choosing to import your .ppt or .pptx slides, you can use one or an entire presentation with the option to add paths between them as you upload.

For more information on this new feature, check out the tutorial video below:




Now What?

Prezi has certainly been well received by not only the Education community but also big business as the new presentation medium for meetings and content delivery.  For those teachers using Prezi in their classroom, be sure to check out Prezi U which is an educational forum which houses Prezis for educational use as well as user submitted articles about how they use Prezi in their classroom.

Present Me

Present.Me is a new beta website where you can upload your PowerPoint presentations and then record audio and video using a webcam to present your presentation.  I think Present.Me is a pretty cool site if you are into the whole flipped classroom thing.  Present.Me could also be a great tool for use in the differentiated classroom where you have students working in small groups on different mini lessons.  Creating a presentation on the site is very simple.  First you upload your PPT file and then you record your slide by slide narration using your webcam.  I really found this site to be easy to use and like the idea of creating a lesson that students could follow independently.  Check out the "presi" that I created on primary and secondary sources below...





Now What?

If you are someone who doesn't mind being in front of the camera like me you can really get into the idea of presenting your presentations for students to view inside or outside of school.  Present.Me is a great way to help students who miss class and also a time saver for you as a teacher once you have your lessons created.