Presenting Prezi

After reading "The World is Flat," I decided this week's entry had to be something stressing collaboration. According to Friedman, the surplus of fiber optics after the dot-com boom made it easy to send massive amount of information overseas and back. This ability to collaborate worldwide is one of the reasons for the "flattening" of the world since today companies can easily outsource work that once had to be done locally. I've also had the experience this week of collaborating on a presentation using Prezi, so I thought why not use this experience for this week's post.

What is Prezi?

Prezi is an online presentation software that strives to bridge the gap between a whiteboard and PowerPoint. Prezi is unique in that it allows the user to zoom in and out. This ability allows for creation of a slideshow that captivates audiences instead of being just another lifeless set of slides.

Prezi gives the user a blank "canvas" to work with. The tools are minimal with most text being added just by clicking which spawns a text block. Adjusting text is achieved by selecting the text which gives the user a set of controls called a "zebra." This "zebra" control ring allows for rotation and re-sizing of text among other things. Other options such as adding images, links, shapes, themes and colors are done by using a palette located at the top left. In true Web 2.0 style changes are saved automatically.

Ready to get started?

Prezi is a very user friendly site which makes it easy to get started. Users need simply sign up for an account to have access to all the core features of Prezi. If you need other features, there are more advanced accounts available with more storage, more security options and more personalization such as using a custom logo during loading screens. Educators will also be treated to an upgraded account that includes many of the advanced features mentioned above, just for using an EDU email address for registration.

Once you have an account, there are many options available to help learn Prezi. There are a number of tutorials on the site plus a YouTube channel with videos which aid in instruction. PowerPoint users can also upload old presentations and use Prezi's new features to add motion to their old works. Further there are discussion forums, a Prezi blog, Twitter feeds and Prezi U Educational Community to help users learn the best ways to implement Prezi into the classroom.

How Prezi collaborates?

Prezi allows for collaboration in two ways: Prezi Meeting or through starting an online presentation.

Prezi meeting allows multiple users to share the same canvas. Each user has their own avatar and can make changes in real time. Invites are sent by clicking the "Meeting" menu located at the top of the Prezi canvas. If you just want to show off the Prezi but not allow other users to work on the presentation there's also a way to collaborate that way.

Will Prezi prepare students for a global world?

Prezi is one of the better tools available for students for free that allows students a chance to improve upon skills needed to excel in the 21st century. Speaking of 21st Century and Prezi, this is an excellent tool for students to develop competencies in all the major 21st Century student outcomes.

Prezi is the perfect tool for teachers who prefer a constructivist approach and want students to showcase their learning. This is really the heart of 21st Century learning in general but to be specific:

• Communication: Prezi is a great platform to communicate ideas to others and the animated movement can help to make that communication more effective.
• Creativity: The blank canvas nature of Prezi with limited themes also encourages creativity which is something other presentation software sometimes fails at.
• Collaboration: Prezi provides a number of ways to collaborate whether in groups, or just to share information with others.
• Critical Thinking: Prezi has very few limits on choice so critical thinking is key in creating effective presentations.
• Core subjects: Prezi provides a vehicle for ideas to be shared but content is up to the user. This means presentations can be created for any subject including any of the 21st century core areas.
• Life and Career Skills: The ability of students to be effective communicators and to present their ideas to bosses will pay dividends for advancement in future careers regardless of the career path.

Final Thoughts

If students are bored with traditional presentation methods such as PowerPoint or just plain old paper, inject a little life into the classroom with Prezi. Registration is quick and the learning curve is simple enough that students familiar with other presentation programs shouldn't have trouble getting started. So take the motion sickness pills, sit back and prepare yourself for a wild ride with Prezi!

Is Wikipedia the Future of Education?

Ever visited Wikipedia? According to the Pew Research Center, over fifty percent of adult Americans reading this have. Wikipedia is the most widely known example of "the Wiki." Today's blog entry will discuss: what wikis are, how wikis can be used in 21st century learning environments, potential considerations when making a wiki and where you can go to create your own.

Wiki 101:

The term wiki comes from the Hawai'ian language, where 'wiki wiki' means fast. This will make perfect sense once you see a wiki space in action. Pages use a stripped down version of HTML that require little to no background in coding to operate. This has led to the complaint that wikis are ugly but functionality is the preferred goal.

Wikis look like a basic webpage, with a few minor differences. Wikis will typically have navigation on the left of the page that links the wiki page to the rest of the site. Wikis are arranged by themes or topics with individual pages being devoted to a single topic. Next, you'll notice tabs across the top of the wiki pages. Tabs may vary but usually include a tab for discussion of the viewed page, a view source tab which allows the user to view/edit the page and a revision tab that will show a record of the changes of this particular page.

In the case of Wikipedia, the left navigation connects you to the larger Wikipedia community, allows for change of language, allows for quick viewing of current events and allows you to browse the contents much like someone would a book. Wikipedia pages also feature several of the tabs mentioned above. The first being "article" which switches the user back to viewing the main topic page. "Talk" is next and this page is for discussion or planning of that pages content. This can even include whether the page deserves to be a part of Wikipedia. Finally, there's the "read," "view source," and "view history" tabs. View source of course allowing the user to edit.

Unlike web pages, ownership of a wiki is another matter entirely. Wikis are designed to be a collaborative document, therefore users can edit your wiki space which is the point of the wiki. The idea is that multiple users come together to create and share information to produce a document. Goals of wikis might be to just create a space where users can brainstorm, or as in the case of Wikipedia to create the world's most detailed encyclopedia. As previously mentioned, most wikis track changes, but no single person can claim ownership of the document.

Wiki use in the classroom:

Can the wiki revolutionize classroom learning? I believe the wiki can be a beneficial tool in classrooms, but it will require challenging traditional methods of teaching and grading. Due to the nature of the wiki, teachers will want to embrace group work and constructivist methods of teaching. Students will need to be allowed to drive instruction instead of a teacher-centric model.

A few of the ways wikis can be used are:

• group project spaces where students can collaborate on ideas, gather resources, and create documents.
• creating a class record of learning.writing practice, such as journals.
• creating a classroom FAQ.
• student created knowledge base with citations, like Wikipedia but on a smaller scale.

One of the things I would like to try is having students develop a geography wiki for our social studies classes. This would be a year long project and it would be flexible enough that students could expand it to suit their own individual research ideas.

I envision starting the students off with a page detailing the seven continents, then as we cover various regions they would build and expand upon the wiki, adding information on countries, culture and places. The result would be a product the students would be able to look back at the end of the year on with pride, since they would see the results of their year in social studies due to the written record they had created. The biggest obstacle I see is how to divide labor to ensure all students are working and engaged. Other hurdles of course are access to technology.

Implications for 21st Century learning:

Wiki creation requires students to possess such a wide spectrum of 21st century skills, that wikis might be the single greatest tool for accomplishing all 21st century learning goals. Studnets would gain core subject knowledge through research then demonstrate it with the content of their wikis. As students gain proficiency in using wikis, the four Cs would become second nature as they communicate their findings, make presentation choices, create engaging articles, and collaborate in groups unlike ever before. Other wiki side effects would include the gaining of information, media and technology skills in a hands on setting through conducting research and building the wiki. Meanwhile, all of this work would translate into life and career skills that would serve as a great foundation for any number of professional jobs.