This is a different kind of story...

AR 4

This is different than a slide show

This week’s assignment was different for me.  I’ve done Power Point presentations in the past.  I’m not fantastic at it, but I’ve done enough that I figured I’d try one of the new options.  The first option (Slideshare) seemed pretty neat.  The idea that you can tweak away on your computer and then take the ‘clicking’ away from the slide show and make it into something cool was interesting to me.  But I wasn’t sure how I could make it work… or if I wanted to do the Power Point first.  Then there were the few problems with uploading that my classmates seemed to have with it.  Honestly, that turned me off.

So I moved onto Prezi.  I’ve seen it in action before (in this class and in others).  So, I looked on the site, and I chose the free educator’s version.  You get an upgrade on the MB storage and a couple of extra features.  And since all you need is an .edu email, why not?  Lucky for me/us the knights email we have to have anyways counts.  Whala! Free Prezi account.

The creation process was fun.  For me it flowed a lot like a mind web I often use when planning out projects.  It was also a bit chaotic due to being able to move all the pieces so much.  I wanted to make sure that I sort of organized the information so that when the screened flew around the audience didn’t get lost.  Also, there was the problem that the images and the text weren’t automatically linked… but that can be worked around.

I knew what I wanted to do.  I wanted to show a few little phrases that told you (the audience) why digital story telling is engaging and fun, and really the way to go to keep students interest.  Then I wanted to have a cute little example of how Prezi can put on a rudimentary presentation.  I picked something easy; reviewing the colors of the rainbow in Spanish.  The mini-lesson also includes the names of the shapes the colors are in as a review (brining in that previous knowledge to keep it active).

The Prezi has lots of visuals for my visual learners.  And then I ran into a problem.  I want sound.  Turns out the instructions for sound gave me a head ache!  Seems there is some sort of issue with it and the formatting you need is a bit tricky.  I’m sure this is just a case of me needing more experience with Prezi.  To me it seems that there are a few ‘tricks’ with this program that are for a more advance user.  No worries, I’ll become said advance user before week 11.  I promise sound by then!

I’m actually going to use this program to do a project in another class this semester.  It’s an option available that I had originally dismissed, and due to this project I’m intrigued enough to want to use it.  The description was apt; this does ‘blow your mind.’  And I know it’s a different presentation tool for the students who are so use to seeing their teachers show them Power Point slides.  That right there is enough for me to give this tool a few more tries.  I have to figure a few more things out, but so far, I’m happy with how this works.

Therefore, I ask you to watch my presentation…  (Bring on the comments!  I want to know if anyone remembers their Spanish colors)