The Prezi Tool

My partner and I are researching the Prezi tool. I had some experience with this tool last semester when someone did a project in my class using it. After watching several slideshows, one slide after another after another, with people reading them to you verbatim and then clicking links to show you their corresponding videos, the Prezi's presentation was an eye opener, and a wake-up call to those of us who had mentally fallen asleep.


When he first turned to his presentation, it wasn't very remarkable. Although I knew it wasn't another slideshow- I figured it was another version of a slide to slide presentation. He was also an older student, he had a few kids and a wife so I briefly wondered if he didn't know how to use a powerpoint or if he even knew what it was, since he was using something else. So aside from knowing it wasn't another slideshow, it wasn't very remarkable at first, all we could see were the words READING DISABILITIES and then a few smaller words and pictures around the side of those words. But then he clicked for the next slide, because of course we were expecting another slide, but when instead of going to another slide the screen dove straight into the circle of the R, I was like WOAH BABY. There were tiny little letters inside that R's circle! It was like the information was hidden, but we found it- it was really cool!  Then the font that he was using made the capitol I look like a lowercase i, so after we dove into the circle of the R, we jumped out and landed on top of the little dot above the i, which had some more information on it. We, as students, were entranced. It didn't move around so much that it made us dizzy, but it was somewhat exciting to wonder where the screen was going to leap off to next. Another great thing about the Prezi is that you don't have to post video or music links that direct you off the page, as they do in powerpoints. You can post them right in your Prezi, and when the screen zooms in or out to your video, all you have to do is press play, and it's there!


I feel that this is a wonderful tool to use inside a classroom when students are taking notes, etc, because its a good way to keep them focused instead of using slide-turning powerpoints. I believe they might get redundant if used over and over again excessively, and too many turns can easily make a student dizzy, but if used for introducing a week's lesson, and created to be entertaining & instructional and not (literally) mind boggling, it can be a very effective tool, and I highly recommend it.

Class Post #2

How do people learn in the real world outside of school?

I think people mostly learn in the real world by doing the things they want to learn, physically doing them. Whether it's walking, learning to make food, or learning how to tumble in gymnastics, the person learns to do them physically, not by reading chapters in a book. Some teachers do incorporate physical activities for the students to learn their material, but another big thing about learning outside of school, is that the person learning is intrinsically motivated. When you are a baby you see everyone else walking around you, and you want to learn to walk too. When you're a little older you want to be Miss Independent and learn how to prepare your own food. When I was in cheerleading, seeing a bunch of girls running around doing tucks and layouts made me want to learn how to do them too. It is different in school. It is much harder to be intrinsically motivated in a subject which does not appeal to you, and it's hard for teachers to give you that sort of motivation. People in the real world learn things because they want to learn them, and they will spend time practicing what they want to learn until they do.

How do people learn from and through technology in the real world?

Technology makes obtaining information easier. A student can hear about some topic or other in one of their classes, and they can come home and google it, and from multiple cites they can learn a bunch of different information on a topic. There are not only document or article based information, but images as well. The student could have a history class and they could be talking about the different battle gear and weapons used in war, and the student can go online and look at a picture of exactly what this was supposed to look like. If you have a friend who lives on the other side of the world, you can use the internet to communicate back and forth and learn what is going on on that side of the world. Television is also another form of technology that transports a bunch of information to a million television screens. Movies are awesome because they can teach you about things you might never have thought about before in an entertaining way. They can inspire new ideas and evoke new opinions about certain things that are not as easily grasped in a classroom.

What are the implications of that for what teaching and learning could/should look like?

This would imply that learning from a teacher should be just like learning gymnastics,  learning how to skateboard, or learning how to make a sandwich. A teacher should somehow inspire intrinsic motivation, and sometimes through the use of technology, a teacher can accomplish this. 

Class Post #1

What do you value of your past teachers?
I think what I most value of my past teachers is there "connectedness" (for lack of a better word) to their students. I liked how a particular teacher, I'll call him Mr. D, would greet every student at his door with their name,or his nickname for the student. And he always knew what was going on in our lives. He'd ask 'Disco Dan' how his vacation to Jamaica was; he'd rattle off football scores to 'Moose,' the football jock; and he'd tease me, his 'Blonde Bombshell' about my "queer" interest in such a "repulsive" language as French. He didn't have much of a fondness for the French! Anyways... I really believe in the importance of learning who your students are as individuals rather than just learning who they are as learners. If a teacher can connect to a student on a somewhat personal level, then he/she can provide a great deal of comfort in a classroom. In a less stressed environment, students are more open to learning, to voicing their opinions, to speaking out against something they disagree with, to contributing to discussions and on assignments. The students will believe the teacher cares about them, rightfully so, and therefore the teacher will get a greater amount of respect along with fewer behavioral problems.


What is great about teaching and learning?
To me, teaching and learning are very rewarding, though on different levels. I am the sort of person who likes doing things for others rather than doing things for me, and therefore teaching is more rewarding. I have coached a competitive cheerleading squad for six years starting with tiny 1st and 2nd graders and ending with big 7th and 8th graders, and each year has been amazing. It's hard to describe the feeling I get at competitions when my girls nail a 1st place routine, but it's amazing. It makes me ridiculously proud of all my 30 some girls who, in the course of four months, have successfully learned everything I taught them. Seeing their proud faces, and receiving a million of their hugs and tears, I feel like I have done something right. I have contributed to a small piece of their lives and helped each of them believe they can reach their potentials. Years from now, when they are struggling through college, I want some memory of me, of our team, of our hard work and success, to reside in the back of their minds, continually reminding them that 'yes, they can make it through this final,' and 'yes, they can make it through this semester,' because they have the potential and they now know how to use it.

Title One.

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