Prezi Revisited: Using Zooming Technology to Flip a Classroom

Prezi (www.prezi.com)

Now I know that Emily and I talked, briefly, about Prezi in one of our first blog posts, but this incredible website continues to evolve. I have found a few ways to use this site to flip my classes (using online environments to "lecture" to students and class time to discuss, problem solve, and create projects), and students--for the most part--enjoy the program so much they use it in other classes.

First, just to make sure we are all on the same page, Prezi (www.prezi.com) is a free, cloud-based program that allows a user to create dynamic, "zooming" visual presentation aids. Think PowerPoint meets Google Earth. If you've watched many TedTalks, you've probably seen a Prezi in action. So we know it's used to help the visual learners in the audience; that's a given.

What's really exciting, though, is that this website can be used to facilitate class presentations, brainstorming sessions, and questions and answers both inside and outside the classroom.

My (customized)
Ninja Prezi.

Prezi Meeting allows all of this to happen through the ability to share a Prezi with a group of people who can then edit the display in real time. As one person enters the Prezi, a little avatar (see left), appears with the person's name. The avatar moves to wherever the person is editing. Right now, up to ten people can join a meeting at the same time (like a night club with a strict fire code--only ten can dance at a time).

You might think a ten person limit is a problem, but it isn't really. It depends on how you set up the assignment. Here's how I've been doing it. I'll create a visual presentation aid to structure a classroom session using Prezi. This Prezi can have an embedded lecture or TedTalk as well as some main points to think about from an assigned reading.

Once the Prezi is created, I'll invite the students to "edit" it. (Tip: make a copy of the lecture and share the copy with your class.) For homework, students enter the Prezi, watch the videos and post questions based on their assigned readings next to the place where we will be talking about that topic in class. Students can even add topics to the Prezi if they find something interesting.

Before class begins, I like to keep the Prezi open on my computer screen. I can see students popping in from time to time to write questions. I can read the questions before class, and other students can see what questions are being posted as well. Since students can visit the Prezi at their leisure, there never seem to be more than four or five in a Prezi at a time, so the ten limit doesn't bother me.

To keep tabs on participation, students are required to put their initials or names by their questions. Then, when I'm using the Prezi to guide our class time activities and discussions, I have the questions posted right on the screen. I can answer the question or ask the class to answer the question when I get to that place in the Prezi.

I also use Prezi to facilitate brainstorming sessions. I divide students into groups of four or five. One student creates a blank Prezi and invites the group (and me) to edit. Students can then post their ideas and offer feedback. I can drop in and provide feedback as well. Emily and I really like how students can post images and videos as well as text.

Here's a Prezi that discusses how I used the program to facilitate a brainstorming session outside of class. (This is from a conference poster session. Yet another way to use Prezi.)

 

Those are just a few ways to use Prezi Meeting in your class to facilitate more online activity. Feel free to share other ways you are using Prezi to flip a class.

Forget Clip Art: Go Back to the Drawing Board

DoInk (http://www.doink.com)

Creating a flash animation (swf file) used to be practically out of reach for many college students, until now. DoInk provides a user-friendly, cloud-based, free platform to create simple animations. One perfect use for these files is with Prezi. Now you can create moving words, shapes, people, images and have them imported into your Prezi presentation. These repeating animations can be quite effective at re-capturing or holding an audience’s attention. Another way to use this program is to create a form of kinetic typography, perfect for visualizing a short poem or haiku. Since you can create an account and an illustration in a typical class period, DoInk would provide a perfect class assignment. Once you create an illustration or animation, you can download it as a swf file, embed it in a website, or link to it. It took me about 10 minutes to create this animation below (just hit the play button):


questions by apostels, made at DoInk.com

odosketch (http://sketch.odopod.com/)

While Microsoft Paint and Google Drawing provide an easy way for students to create their own clip art for presentations and documents, the results are usually a little basic. Though these programs are helpful (Google Drawing even allows collaboration), they can really frustrate those who are more artistically inclined. Enter odosketch. This ingenious website provides users with a dozen or so pencils and colors and a sheet of paper (all digital of course). Once the illustration is drawn you can share the file on a website or blog via an embed code. The result is an eye-catching animation of the drawing in progress. If you are more interested in a standard, still-frame jpeg-like version of the drawing, just take a screen capture of the finished drawing and paste it into your document or PowerPoint. The site works wonderfully with touch pad computers. The best thing about this site is there is almost no learning curve. Check out this animation featured on the site to see the potential odosketch offers (refresh your browser if the drawing is already completed):

Presenting...Online Presentation Tools

XtraNormal (http://www.xtranormal.com) 

XtraNormal takes the complicated process of creating an animated video and simplifies it to a user-friendly type based platform. The free version of this site allows you to make short, simple videos that students seem to really enjoy. For example, Shawn created a video of superheros discussing why it's important to read the class syllabus. The class enjoyed it and the video only took a few minutes to create. Just pick a collection, choose your characters, and type in the narrative. Once you complete your video you can preview it, but give yourself about four hours for it to render. Completed videos can be embedded on your blog, website, or Facebook account. XtraNormal provides additional credits for educators, but you'll need to fill out this form: http://xtranormal.zendesk.com/requests/new. 



Prezi (www.prezi.com) 

Prezi is a great alternative to PowerPoint because it allows you to visualize the connections being made in the topic you are discussing. PowerPoints are linear. Once you change the slide, the information is gone. While this is helpful to show before and after sequences, they don't encourage the viewers to make connections as the speech continues. Prezi, on the other hand, allows speakers to create smoother, or at least more animated, transitions between the main points of a speech. Videos are also a pleasure to use in Prezi because they are embedded in the presentation. Prezi offers basic templates to use if you are just getting started, but we encourage you to experiment with the design wizard to create a presentation that really works with your topic. If you are doing a group presentation, try Prezi meeting, which allows several people to work on a Prezi at the same time. Finished Prezis can be downloaded as a .swf file (flash file) or embeded in a website. One thing that we find helpful is that Prezi is cloud based, meaning your Prezis can be accessed and edited on any computer, and presentations can be given on any browser with an updated Flash player. 

What is Prezi? Press the play button! on Prezi