Prezi - an exciting alternative for training
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teachmeprezi.com http://www.teachmeprezi.com/prezi-an-exciting-alternative-for-training/ Filmstrip projector (photo from gilai.com) Prezi – An Exciting Alternative for Training If you went to school in the 50’s or 60’s you may remember the thrill of the educational filmstrip. No, I’m not being sarcastic. For school children that had yet to experience videos or interactive websites, it really was thrilling. I can recall sitting in my wooden desk in at Village Meadows Elementary School in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Like every other day, I faced another boring afternoon of lessons, reading, and workbooks. Staring at the big black and white wall clock above the chalkboard, I willed the hands to inch toward 3:15 and Freedom. When, to the delight of my classmates and me, the door to our prison cell opened and in rolled the glorious AV cart. Atop the metallic green cart, on a black rubber pad rested the machine that would free us from our bondage of boredom: The Filmstrip Projector! The sound of those squeaky wheels beneath the projector meant that we would soon be enjoying a 20-minute multimedia presentation – recorded music, professional voice-over, and a larger-than-life slideshow in glorious Technicolor! Though not as exciting as the multi-media of today, a filmstrip program was a professionally produced recording that played on a record or cassette in sync with projected images. The older filmstrip equipment played a tone that indicated when to advance to the next image. My classmates and I vied for the honor of being selected to turn the knob at the sound of the tone. It seems silly to think of how this simple program of projected slides with a recorded soundtrack could stir so much excitement in my little Arizona classroom. But the novelty of it was enough to get us to sit up and pay close attention to the program. In today’s classrooms, students are lucky enough to have access to videos, computers, and tablets with sophisticated eLearning applications. Yet, when it comes to instructor-led training, we most often present our content using the equivalent of a filmstrip projector. PowerPoint and Keynote are limited to presenting images in a linear, slide-by-slide-by-slide sequence. The software has evolved over the years to add fancy transitions and animations, but they are still fashioned after the old filmstrip model – linear and sequential. Prezi, on the other hand, is non-linear and can be used non- sequentially. It’s not limited to a slide by slide series of projected images. That’s because it doesn’t use slides. A Prezi presentation is a single canvas. Instead of a series of slides, it’s like one giant slide. All the content for the training presentation is placed on that single slide. Prezi flies over the canvas moving from section to section, zooming in to frames that were defined by the Instructional Designer. The frames are similar to the frame of a movie camera. They determine if the shot shows a landscape of the entire set or a close-up of the actors. This adds a third dimension to the presentation. The existence of this third dimension – depth – blows the old linear slideshow model out of the water. It’s as if my
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Transcript of Prezi - an exciting alternative for training
teachmeprezi.com http://www.teachmeprezi.com/prezi-an-exciting-alternative-for-training/
Filmstrip projector (photo from gilai.com)
Prezi – An Exciting Alternative for Training
If you went to school in the 50’s or 60’s you may rememberthe thrill of the educational filmstrip. No, I’m not beingsarcastic. For school children that had yet to experiencevideos or interactive websites, it really was thrilling. I canrecall sitting in my wooden desk in at Village MeadowsElementary School in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Like everyother day, I faced another boring afternoon of lessons,reading, and workbooks. Staring at the big black and whitewall clock above the chalkboard, I willed the hands to inchtoward 3:15 and Freedom. When, to the delight of myclassmates and me, the door to our prison cell opened andin rolled the glorious AV cart. Atop the metallic green cart,on a black rubber pad rested the machine that would freeus from our bondage of boredom: The Filmstrip Projector!
The sound of those squeaky wheels beneath the projectormeant that we would soon be enjoying a 20-minute multimedia presentation – recorded music, professional voice-over, and alarger-than-life slideshow in glorious Technicolor! Though not as exciting as the multi-media of today, a filmstrip program was aprofessionally produced recording that played on a record or cassette in sync with projected images. The older filmstripequipment played a tone that indicated when to advance to the next image. My classmates and I vied for the honor of beingselected to turn the knob at the sound of the tone. It seems silly to think of how this simple program of projected slides with arecorded soundtrack could stir so much excitement in my little Arizona classroom. But the novelty of it was enough to get us to situp and pay close attention to the program.
In today’s classrooms, students are lucky enough to have access tovideos, computers, and tablets with sophisticated eLearningapplications. Yet, when it comes to instructor-led training, we mostoften present our content using the equivalent of a filmstrip projector.PowerPoint and Keynote are limited to presenting images in a linear,slide-by-slide-by-slide sequence. The software has evolved over theyears to add fancy transitions and animations, but they are stillfashioned after the old filmstrip model – linear and sequential.
Prezi, on the other hand, is non-linear and can be used non-sequentially. It’s not limited to a slide by slide series of projectedimages. That’s because it doesn’t use slides. A Prezi presentation is asingle canvas. Instead of a series of slides, it’s like one giant slide. Allthe content for the training presentation is placed on that single slide.Prezi flies over the canvas moving from section to section, zooming into frames that were defined by the Instructional Designer. The frames are similar to the frame of a movie camera. Theydetermine if the shot shows a landscape of the entire set or a close-up of the actors. This adds a third dimension to thepresentation. The existence of this third dimension – depth – blows the old linear slideshow model out of the water. It’s as if my
elementary schoolmates and I were expecting a filmstrip and instead were shown a Hollywood blockbuster.
When you give a training presentation with Prezi instead of PowerPoint or Keynote, you can get the same reaction from youraudience that wheeling the AV cart into my elementary school classroom had for me. The novelty of presenting in threedimensions is exciting and new. It will capture your audience’s attention, and can make the presentation a more meaningful andmemorable experience. The zooming interface allows you to survey an overview of the major concepts then delve deeper intothe supporting details. You can zoom back out at any time to reorient your audience with how the details fit into the grandscheme of things.
I’m not saying that Prezi is appropriate for every training situation. PowerPoint still reigns as the presentation standard. Prezi isstill in its infancy. It only recently celebrated its seventh birthday by reaching the milestone of 50,000 users. PowerPoint got itsstart in the late 1980’s and is used by more than 500 million people. Prezi is still limited in its features. Simply customizing thefonts and color schemes can require an Instructional Designer to delve into the CSS Editor to tweak the code.
But Prezi can do one thing that PowerPoint and Keynote justcan’t. It can zoom. This simple movement can make a worldof difference. Through its movement, Prezi cancommunicate the relationship between the concepts andshow how those concepts fit into the overall scheme. Prezican fly over the canvas transporting your audience into aclassroom full of giddy schoolchildren, excited to seesomething new and different, and prepared to sit up andtake notice.
