This week I've been looking through several educational- technology blogs that have been on my "to do" list for a while now. When you are in the midst of teaching it is often difficult to make time just to play around with new tools, sites, etc. Even when fun, new ideas are presented to us on professional development days, it is easy to return to school the next day, stash the material in a pile on the desk and forget about it for a while. My coworkers and I have often said "we need a professional development day just to digest and look at all the stuff we've been shown over the past several professional development days!"
Well this week was that week. Or at least the beginning of trying to keep up to date with things. I think we need to be careful that when we add technology to our teaching style, it is not just bells and whistles that will distract students or "wow" them for a moment. The additions should provide a richer experience by engaging them and helping them learn the material in a more effective way.
http://prezi.com/ is one that has caught my attention. It is similar to PowerPoint, in that it used mainly for presentations, but it has many more features that lend itself to be more narrative in nature. It also can be created collaboratively, which is great for student group projects or when you are working with another teacher to create a lesson. Like many sites, the basic version is free and the more sophisticated versions are at a cost. I encourage you to browse through some of their examples or search for some ready-made "prezies" already out there that could inspire you to incorporate this tool next year.
3 comments:
Wow, Adrienne, this looks fantastic!! I do all of my lessons in Powerpoint, but Prezi presentations looks easier to make and much more interesting. I love the ease of embedding a Youtube video. Can't wait to try it out!
I agree with needing the time to digest and to brainstorm how to use all of these wonderful sites/sources. I wish they would give the staff 20-30 every day to just talk about education, lesson plans, collaboration, teach one another about what's new and what's working. Can you imagine the huge impact on our classrooms and our students' learning this could have? Endless possibilities...
I have become fascinated with prezi since a fellow student introduced it to our young adult lit class. He gave a presentation - a book trailer - and it was phenomenal! I love the way the presentation will focus on key words and kind of lead you through it instead of throwing a whole paragraph at you at once.
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