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.

Face the Social Media: Facebook is a useful tool in the classroom

Facebook (www.facebook.com)

If you have a pulse, you've probably heard of Facebook. As Emily and I walk around the technology-rich environment of the Noel Studio for Academic Creativity (our place of employment), we often find students working on a class project in one monitor window with Facebook opened up on another window.

We also see students walking to their next class with their heads down, looking at their phones, checking status updates, and messaging their Facebook friends.

Facebook has their attention, and we need to use this in the classroom.

Now, I know what you may be thinking. "I'm spending my time trying to keep students off their Facebook accounts when I'm teaching, why would I use that website in my class?"

Here's why: Facebook works great in the classroom. In my experience, students are happy to see the instructor use this website as opposed to BlackBoard--where communication is more tedious.

One reason instructors don't like the idea of using Facebook is that they don't want to "Friend" their students. That's a concern I have as well, but when I teach a class the first thing I do is set up a Facebook group and ask the students to join.

Facebook groups allow people who are not "Friends" to share a virtual space in which they can communicate, share links, videos, and pictures, and actually message each other when questions arise. As the administrator of the group, I can limit the group to members of the class and can restrict posts to only be viewable to the members of the group. In other words, groups allow some level of privacy.

If a student doesn't have a Facebook account, it's easy to create one. And if privacy is an issue, it's easy to create a fun account. For example, I created one for Bebe Giraffe--the Noel Studio mascot.

Here's how it works. I'll post a link on BlackBoard or our class Blog to the Facebook group I created. I usually title the group "ekuclass" or something like that. During class, students will click on the link and then click on a button that submits a request to join the group. I'm notified when someone asks to join, and I can accept or reject the request.

Once everyone is in, we can use the group to post links to things like Prezi Meetings, post questions that we have about assignments, posts videos and pictures that complement what we learn in class, and post class projects for feedback.

As an instructor, I really enjoy seeing students provide peer review on assignments (in the form of "comments"), and I often use the "like" button as a way to generate quick feedback to figure out what student project was the class favorite. I also enjoy posting "polls" to see what the class thinks about a particular concept.

However, my favorite thing about Facebook is that more often than not, when I see that a question has been posted, another student--or several--have already posted answers before I can.

Now that's a dynamic environment.

No (reflection without) Your Meme

QuickMeme (www.quickmeme.com)

After a challenging project, or during the composition of a prolonged communication product, I often ask my students to reflect on their thoughts and concerns about the process of communicating with others. My usual approach is using a freewrite assignment that they can complete during a few minutes of class time.

While these reflections are informative and can help me as I revise my assignments, the writing is very private by nature. It's handwritten on paper and written primarily for me. This semester I attempted something different. Instead of the standard hand-written-words-on-paper reflection, I had them create a meme (pronounced "meem") to explain their feelings about the assignments and/or share their thoughts about the end of the semester.

Emily recommend I use quickmeme.com, and the class really seemed to find the program accessible. As it turned out, no one in my class had created a meme although they had all seen them on their social networking sites. They had 10 minutes to find a picture, add the words to created their meme, and post their memes on our Facebook group.

The result was lots of fun and some compelling class discussion. As memes were posted on Facebook, I would project the image. While some of the memes were more effective than others, the class learned how to create a meme, and I learned what they were going through during these last few weeks of the semester.

Most importantly, the class learned they were not alone. We are all feeling stressed and overwhelmed at the end of the semester. Instructors and technology associates included. Now...I need to get some grading done.

Can you see me now? Visualizing thesis topics on Many Eyes.

Many Eyes (http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/)

This IBM experiment has quite a few fun options for visualizing data, and Emily and I have enjoyed playing with different ways to "see" numbers. Like most of the other sites listed on this blog, Many Eyes is free and cloud based. All you do is upload a excel-style spreadsheet, enter data by hand, or pick a data set that someone else uploaded. While interesting, I haven't used this website in class and haven't blogged about it because I don't do a ton of work with hard data. That changed with the President's State of the Union.

I was speaking with a class of ESL students about graphs and pulled up Many Eyes. We started looking at the variety of visualization possibilities and discussing what visualization would work best for what kind of data set. From scatter point charts to word clouds, the range of possibilities is stunning, but we noticed, pretty quickly, that someone had uploaded the President's speech. The class was interested in seeing what topics were of concern to the President in his speech, so we started to explore.

We opened the already-created word cloud and saw some words were clearly larger, indicating that these were spoken frequently.

Right away we noticed "jobs," "energy," and "tax" as we discussed the cloud in class. Under the cloud we found a link to the actual data file--basically the speech in a text document. Once we were there, we clicked on the visualization link below the speech and were offered a wide range of new charts to visualize the speech. We selected "word tree" and entered the word "jobs" in the search bar. This is what we found:

From this visualization we could easily see in what context the word "jobs" was being used in the speech. It occurred to me then, that this website would be an excellent way to find topics for research. Students could upload a text document, visualize the data, and figure out different approaches to the text.

Whether you use this website in class or not, I would encourage you to have fun and play with this site. If you are working with information by state or country, I would highly encourage you to see what Many Eyes can do to help you visualize and share information with others.

YouTube. You edit. You need to try this.

YouTube Video Editor (http://www.youtube.com/editor)

We've been working with a few different video editing software, and finding one that works for students accustomed to Macs, PCs, and Chrome books has been a challenge. Some students, we find, don't even have access to there own computers, so editing video can be a real challenge. Until recently.

YouTube's video editor is a great, entry-level, cloud-based software that allows students to create simple videos. After creating a free account, students can upload clips of video footage they collected and simply drag them into place on the timeline. They can also drag transitions into place and utilize creative commons video and royalty free music if needed.

Once the footage is in place, an audio file can be selected and typed words can be added to the clips. Right now there is no way to add your own voice-over to the video, so any audio you record on the clips will have to suffice. Once the project is done, just hit publish and it's on YouTube. 

This video shows just how easy this tool is to use.

It's Glog, Glog, it's better than bad, it's good

Glogster (http://www.glogster.com/)

I've been looking for a WYSIWYG cloud-based software that allows you to easily incorporate visuals, text, video, and audio files on one page. Glogs are like virtual poster boards, and I can't wait to use these in the classroom.

Right now, it seems as though the software has been updated and some people appear upset, but I have no problem figuring out how to create, move, and edit my project. In fact, I plan on using this website to showcase the zombie card game I designed at a QEP symposium.

While Glogster's primary market is elementary school children, the visual possibilities seem to be promising for college students. I think the program has potential as a way to introduce students to visual rhetoric in freshmen level writing and communication courses.

My plan is to have students use this program to present their final projects to the class. Since they are completing a community outreach project outside of the classroom, students are required to talk about their experiences using videos, photos, and audio files. Glog will allow the groups to create virtual posters that will help them organize their experiences, and share their projects to people outside the class.

The free plan gives you everything you'll need to create dynamic posters. Give Glogster a try. 

Maps and Photos and Files, Oh my: The possibilites are off the chart with Historypin

Historypin (http://www.historypin.com/)

While I haven't been able to use this in program in a class yet, the possibilities seem so limitless with Historypin that I wanted to share it with you now, while your syllabus for next semester may still be in development--like mine.

Historypin is an online collection of photographs, audio, and video files that are primarily organized by the place where they are taken/recorded. As people upload files to the map, they are also able to date them and write a little story about what is taking place.

Right now, the collection seems rather USA and Europe heavy, but I'm sure as time goes by we'll be able to find more files available. In any case, Historypin provides a few rather obvious teaching/assignment opportunities.

Next semester, my class will be writing, speaking, and filming a ghost tour of EKU's campus, and Historypin will allow us to create a collection of photographs to tell this story digitally. We will also create a tour using Historypin.

Another classroom use could be to see photographs of the time and place in which a novel is set. Writing topics could be generated by actually seeing the objects the author mentions or by seeing the damage occurred by natural disaster or warfare.

Then, of course, there is application for a history, geography, and architecture classes. There are so many directions you can take with this program. Try it out and see what you think.