Why I Stopped Hating Prezi

I have been doing some workshops on campus talking about why you might consider using Prezi as an alternative to PowerPoint. Normally, I love doing sessions like this because it gives me the chance to help people think about different ways to use technology.  As I put together the content for these particular sessions though, I found myself struggling. Struggling not with what to show from a practical standpoint, but instead struggling with why I would want to encourage people to give it a try.

Part of me didn’t want to tell people just to experiment without context. I tell people all the time how important it is to keep things simple and not get so bogged down in the shiny and fancy that our content and message get lost. Let’s face it, Prezi can fly in the face of that. We’ve all see Prezi over-glitzed and over-zoomed to the point where I joked that perhaps I should hand out motion sickness medication as swag in my presentations.  So why was I going to show people the potential that lurked in that blank canvas? Wasn’t that the ultimate can of worms I’d be opening?

Yes and no.

Finally, I found my approach: Prezi works  when you have a story to tell.  When you can use that canvas to move your audience through the narrative that you want to immerse them in, it provides an advantage.  Thinking about that story; giving it life – that became our focus while we looked at the different features of the tool.  I also used these sessions as a public service announcement on how to write for the web since the most critical part of telling our story is the words we choose to use to express our ideas.  If we can take anything from Prezi, it is Prezi’s efforts to move us away from a slide crammed to capacity with tons of text or hundreds of bullet points.

Ultimately, we spent a good chunk of time thinking of different presentations we need to give and what tool would be best to work with. Facts and figures that progress in a very linear way would be presented using Prezi simply for the wow factor.   Presenting highlights of faculty and student achievements over the course of the year on the other hand could benefit from the storytelling nature of Prezi.

In the end, as it always seems to, it comes down to establishing a goal before picking our tools. The powerful aspect of the age we live in is the number of tools we have at our disposals. Understanding their strengths and purpose as it relates to what we want to achieve is what sets us apart.

Tips for Bringing Social Media Into The Classroom

I’m getting ready to talk to faculty this week about weaving social media tools into the classroom experience.  It’s exciting to see people taking that leap of faith and trying new ways to get students engaged in class and beyond.  As we talked about specific ways our LMS will support social engagement, I kept coming back to five important things to think about. These concepts do not depend on what social channel you decide to use or what learning management tool your institution provides.

1. I’m sure some people on campus might have heard me say this before, but we have to know our goal that we’re trying to achieve before we start throwing a technology solution at it.  Incorporating social tools into the classroom is no different.  Adding a social element to a class because everyone else is doing it does not support your learning objectives any more that adding a social element for the sake of saying you are using one.  In this case, it isn’t goals before tools, it’s classroom pedagogy before technology.
2. Make sure everyone understands privacy settings and how to adjust them. It never hurts to provide a reminder of how to set these up and tailor them.
3. Don’t assume that everyone is tech savvy or comfortable with the tools you want to use.  I am guilty of this one from time to time.  We think of students as being digital natives with all the knowledge of all the tools.  That isn’t always the case.
4. Decide ahead of time how you want to handle friending and following students. This is a tough one.  On the one hand, you’re asking them to become involved at a personal level in your course beyond the classroom.  But at the same time, you might not feel comfortable opening yourself to that level of relationship. At the end of the day, no one can tell you what’s right or wrong, as long as you set a clear understanding from the start.
5. The last critical component to think about is what your plan will be to monitor student work.  You want to make sure you’re monitoring, but you also want to make sure that you have the tools ready to make it easy on you.

Now that we’ve transitioned to Canvas, the support and infrastructure is there to bring new elements to our classes.  It will be a fun journey to watch take place.