Powerpoint and Prezi

When I think of powerpoint I think boring, overused, time wasting, especially when used in the classroom. However when I looked throught the practical activities of creating an interactive powerpoint and creating animated movies it gave me other idea of how powerpoint could be utilised in the classroom.

From a Learning Managers perspective:

• Organised - The LM can hyperlink to anything needed rather than clicking through files and searching on the internet.
• Easy to use
• Caters for visual and auditory learners
• Can be used to scaffold lessons including times for showing examples or including activites
• If used correctly can be interesting and interactive
• Can be saved and changed or used again.

From a students perspective:

• Teaches students to plan their work first
• Makes students look at the bigger picture of their presentation first
• There is more focus on the information first rather than the pictures and text style
• Interesting and interactive

Powerpoint is a great tool for students to use to present information however I also think it a great tool to teach students how to manipulate elements. Once students have learnt how to construct a powerpoint using images, colour and text in the earlier years, I think they could move on to use Prezi.

Looking at the Prezi titled 'Why should we Move Beyond Slides?' by Adam Somlai-Fischer I found the prezi a definate option to powerpoint. Its interactive and appealing and something that I have not seen used in the classroom. Im sure it is used however not as much as powerpoint, and because of this I think teachers and students would embrace the use of something new.