Prezi - The Cost to Maintain Security and Safety
When it came to the subject of
making a presentation for the purposes of this reflection Blogger was lacking
in what I needed or wanted to do. While good for blogging, reading and
analysis, the limitation of Blogger related to digital media is something I
have already explored, and I was left unable to really create a presentation
using the medium. There were a few ways I could do it, namely uploading a
recorded PowerPoint or Youtube video, but both ways used a recording medium to
achieve the goal. As a result, I focused on Prezi, a system I used during my
high school years and has since continued to be used, albeit the first thing
that surprised me was the ways in which it repeatedly tried to get me to spend
money, to fully access its features.
The first thing I did was
create an account. The step was pretty simple, input an email, password and
keep going. After creating the account, I was then given options for
subscriptions, ranging from $5-15 with various perks and uses. I instead set up
a basic account for free, allowing me to create five Prezi's unless I upgraded.
Immediately, an issue regarding Prezi's use in the classroom was found. Access
to five slideshows a year, when teaching roughly 27 lessons a subject across
the school term? The limitations put in by Prezi based off how much you are
willing to pay, render it quite difficult to use it effectively in the
classroom, without dipping into your own wallet.
In the creation of a Prezi, knowledge of PowerPoint or similar systems is useful as the two resources are quite similar. I was given access to the option of a theme, focusing on education I chose a theme which was a sample of my favoured subject, History. I created a simple, five slide presentation regarding the Three Seasons of the River Nile in Ancient Egypt, this allowed me to play around with images such as inputting backgrounds. I also didn't find any restriction related to collaboration, as you can invite individuals through email.
However, my exploration did find how much costs limit security.
Prezi's privacy restrictions are locked behind paywalls.
Hi Jayden,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your overview of Prezi. I've never heard of this platform before so I found it interesting to read your perspective on it. Although Prezi seems like a good platform for creating professional looking presentations, I don't see myself using it as (like you pointed out) the free version seems quite limited.
Your example presentation was great - I'm wondering, does Prezi have a function to record a voiceover? Or is it solely for creating slides? Also, I'd be curious to see whether Prezi can be used to make one of the "find-your-own-path" type interactive presentations like Glenda was talking about in last week's module.
Thanks for working with me on this assessment task. It was great to collaborate with you,
Juliet
Hi Jayden
ReplyDeleteI apologise for not commenting earlier. I have just realised that comments I thought had been published failed to because I was using my personal Google account.
I really appreciated this post. I've never used Prezi but have heard many things over the years. It was helpful that you were clear about the limitations of it's use in schools due to cost and privacy. I do note you recommended they might be useful for teacher instruction and I feel more confident in giving it a go since you said it is works similarly to Power Point. I liked that in your example, you used an image of the River Nile - I thought that it was a good use of the Prezi format to present information in a way where students can make visual connections between information and the geographic location. I wonder if there is any scholarly articles on how Prezi can support students with spatial difficulties, or students general geographical knowledge of the societies they study in History. My last thought is that I think you could have explored the redefinition component of the SAMR model further. You mentioned the involvement of peers but how does Prezi redefine assignment group work compared to non-digital group tasks?
I really enjoyed this post. Your conversational writing style was engaging. Good luck with AT1.
Madeleine
Hey Jayden,
ReplyDeleteMy Media Arts teacher uses Prezi to collate all his term’s worth of work, including lesson content, on one presentation. I’ve noticed some positives (easily access all teachable content in one place) and negatives to this (transitions are a little jumpy and time consuming when going back far). I find it does have a professional appeal when you are using it to teach, but I would agree that PowerPoint would be more suitable for students to create their presentations on. You’re explorations of its limitations have been highly informative. I would love to know what the creation process looks like on the website. Perhaps next time you could link a tutorial.
Thanks,
Ange