Prezi and 6th graders

"You are doing what?"  a fellow teacher said.

I replied, "I'm sick of seeing kids do the same thing over and over again, pages, appleworks, word, powerpoint, keynote, they need to do something different."

"Good luck."  a fellow teacher replied.

Then I took my reading class to the computer lab and started teaching them Prezi.

If you aren't using Prezi, I understand, It's hard, It's visually difficult to understand, it's more work, but gosh darn it, it's different and it's cool.

There is something to be said for cloud computing, no flash drives, no logging onto a school server, just saved to an email address.  Gotta love it.  How do kids turn it in?  No printing, no dragging, just e-mail me the link, and you only have to do it once.

"I'll e-mail it to you now, but if I make it better, do I have to e-mail you again?" a student asked.

My reply, "Nope, all you do is work until you think you are finished and let me know.  I'll look at it then."  Kids reply, "Cool!"

We looked at some sample Prezi's, we looked at one I made, critiqued it (show-offs!) watched a few "how to" videos, and started playing.

Day 1 - Played
Day 2 - Added information about their author, e-mailed me the link
Day 3 - Added images
Day 4 - Created the path and added fun stuff
Day 5 - wrapped up and shared with the class, the kids loved it.

Even though there were some bumps in the road (who knew Prezi and firefox wouldn't get along, had to use safari) the kids were really proud of what they did.

Check them out!

http://prezi.com/wskgtlsfti4z/jeff-kinney/

http://prezi.com/jmailst-hgdd/gloria-whelan-winner-of-many-awards-and-writer-of-wonderful-books/

http://prezi.com/1emti-oaaunw/jk-rowling/

http://prezi.com/lklc1mh9xyxc/edward-bloor/

http://prezi.com/fnnn50s_ibe1/chris-dlacey/

http://prezi.com/pccyn5zv4nkt/sharon-g-flake/

http://prezi.com/_zec4cthfjbt/rick-riordan/

http://prezi.com/dswgzrhkxrgr/rick-riordan/

http://prezi.com/7mfpw7lftsan/se-hinton/

http://prezi.com/yyrxcszamgrd/author-questions/

http://prezi.com/-dbcx_tc-tac/author-questions/

http://prezi.com/rjjirtelg27y/dan-gutman/

http://prezi.com/v6h1mtzrc7-e/roland-smith/

http://prezi.com/wrzbc8nicizg/linda-buckley-archer-report/

http://prezi.com/slh1jjb2ov6j/gary-paulsen/

http://prezi.com/m_xjxalsexm8/jenny-nimmo/

http://prezi.com/vmnox8sa1z_p/el-konisberg/

http://prezi.com/ljai02ga2v27/reading-strategies/

http://prezi.com/qufjwzalx-ah/report/



Resources I used to "teach" Prezi

What is Prezi? - a Youtube video

Tutorial - a Youtube video

Creative Commons: What every educator needs to know

I liked this podcast... interesting information.....WE SHOULD ALL KNOW...

Creative Commons: What every Educator needs to know

View more webinars from Rodd Lucier.

Also check out: Lawrence Lessig on TED: http://www.ted.com/speakers/larry_lessig.html

Here's a question for discussion: Does copywriting kill creativity?

10/20/30 rule for power point

We all love power point. We have all seen the impact it can have, both good and bad, over our groups we present to.  I was reading a blog the other day and found a great rule to live by for power point (http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html#axzz0mTnr7Xs4)

Here's the rule

10/20/30

10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font.

It's that easy.  10 slides will limit the length and depth of your conversation, 20 minutes ensures that at least SOME of you important information will be attended to, 30 point font will break you from trying to put your ENTIRE speech on a slide.

Don't get me wrong I love presentation tools like keynote, power point, prezi etc.  but misusing them can lead to horrible presentations.

Find out more about powerpoint and what  hate about it here: http://coachinandout.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-i-hate-about-powerpoint.html

What to do with a powerpoint?

Ever wanted to take your AMAZING powerpoint and make it more accessible for students? This is a very cool resource!

authorSTREAM Online PowerPoint Presentations and Slideshow Sharing

Something else to consider is uploading it to slideshare. This weite is a searchable database of presentations. Check it out at: http://www.slideshare.net/

If you are really bold, video yourself and upload it to http://www.ustream.tv/

What I hate about powerpoint...

After attending many conferences recently and presenting in class myself I'm noticing a trend in powerpoints and presentations that are a little scary to me. Presenters and lecturers are getting boring....

Reading up on power point I have come across some REALLY funny thoughts on this topic and adapted some rules that I'm publishing simply for my own benefit. I want to publish these so that I can be better at presenting information to a group. SO hold me to these, make sure I don't do them and have some fun with the rules. Comment away, add more rules for me to follow:

What I hate about power point adapted from: http://jeremyharmer.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/10-things-i-hate-about-powerpoint/


1 Powerpoint as lecture notes
Make it interesting don’t use the power point and stare at your power point while you talk. If you don’t know what yu are going to say, maybe you shouldn’t be the one saying it…

2 Visual assault
“Pictures, flashes, whizzy entrances, funny faces. It can all get far far too much. I’ll need to re-evaluate what I do with pictures and animation.”

3 Aural assault
“Thwack! Zing! Bzzzz! Kerpow! Wow. Is it too much?”

4 Bullet points
“If I never see another bullet point again I will be
• Happy
• Relieved
• Surprised
They’re everywhere in Microsoft’s Powerpoint template and they screw up the hierarchy of information. And they’re boring.”

5 Powerpoint backgrounds
Don’t use the ones given to you, find some of your own. Or better yet, use black or white and use the imags on the screen as the excitement. Think about an Art Museum, what colors are the walls? WHITE! Why? TO NOT TAKE AWAY FORM THE ART!

6 Early closing
“Leave the last screen up there until people have left the room. It’s good manners.”

7 Lecturers who stand in front of the projector
Just don’t do it..

8 Lecturers who are stuck to the computer
Get out, walk around be yourself. Unless you are boring then be someone else…

9 Technology experts

“fitting the technology to the child, not the child to the technology as the British academic Susan Greenfield said in the House of Lords (Britain’s second legislative chamber) the other day.”

Basically don’t make this overcomplicated or try to WOW the crowd unless you are giving a presentation on WOWing. Keep t simple and not distracting.


10 Technology failure
Prepare for it and have a back up plan in case your powerpoint doexn’t work.

My Final thoughts...

If you are like me….be creative with your presentation, and censor those around you (namely me) to not be too creative. Don’t limit yourself to power point there are a lot of great resources out there that will get your point across too. In fact some of the best presentations I’ve seen was someone simply flipping through their Flickr images. Think about it!

Great video!