With the new development cycle in full-swing, I am excited to see that all of you have a solid start on your courses. Since most of you are seasoned developers who know the ins-and-outs of online development, I'm looking at this cycle as an opportunity to go a little more in-depth with what I write about on this blog. As well as challenge myself to find creative ideas for you to implement....since a couple of you (ahem - Amy and Heather) are the ones who taught me most of what I know!
So, here we go....
One of the first steps for many developers is organizing the reading assignments and plugging in the publisher PowerPoints. Don't get me wrong - ppt is a really useful tool and the slides that accompany the textbook are great for helping students identify the key points in the reading. But, we all know how exciting ppt can be [insert sarcasm here]
Enter: Prezi
Perhaps some of you have heard of this tool and even dabbled in it a little....but for those of you who have not, Prezi is a cool web-based tool that lets you create unique presentations on a single canvas that can be designed in a non-linear, zoom-in-and-out fashion. It is a fun alternative to consider if you're looking for a way to present information, ideas, or concepts in a visually appealing format that is less "concrete" than our old BFF, PowerPoint.
To find out for myself how Prezi actually works, I created this one as a supplement to the Staff Information area of my courses...just something simple to help students learn a little about me as their instructor. There is no audio, but using Jing, I could screencast my Prezi to include an audio component. I haven't decided yet, if I'll do that, as I think it functions nicely as is....but, it's certainly a good option to have.
Prezi has the potential to "spice up" your courses a bit and could be really useful for facilitating week one icebreakers, engaging in concept mapping, or presenting a lot of visual/pictorial examples. I encourage you to check it out...play with it a little and peruse the Explore section of Prezi for some inspiration on how this tool might work for you and the course you're developing. And don't be intimidated by it...my husband has his students do a project using Prezi, so if a 6th grader can do it, so can you!
For some additional insight about Prezi and it's use/relevance to higher education, these articles are good food for thought:
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Challenging-the-Presentation/22646/
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/trends-in-higher-education/prezi-a-better-way-of-doing-presentations/
Enjoy!
Kelly
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