Week 5 - PowerPoint, Prezi and Glogster

And I thought that this week would be easy...  I considered myself an accomplished PowerPoint user and I was thinking that this week would be a breeze.  Boy, was I wrong!

My experience with PowerPoint did make the week much easier when dealing with the software, but I was challenged when I needed to think about the application of a PowerPoint presentation in a school situation and not in a typical presentation situation for which I am much more familiar.

I was lucky to have recently been invited to my son's school to talk about life cycles with the Grade 2s during their science lesson.  Knowing my son's interests and my own preference for visual learning, I created a PowerPoint as a way of showing pictures to the students of various life cycles and animals that we were then going to observe under the microscopes (that I also took in...).  It was a simple PowerPoint that I controlled and talked to.  After learning about the power of interactive presentations I feel that I could have done a much better job.  I have added some interactive links the presentation that I did for the Grade 2s and I think that if doing it again I would change my linear approach and invite the students to explore the new and improved interactive presentation, that I invite you to view on my wiki site.

You will also find a presentation that I gave at a recent Australasian Wildlife Conference on my wiki site as an example of a more polished presentation that I have made.

And then...

I started to look at what a Prezi was (having never heard of it before), and I love it! I even downloaded the app onto my iPad and found it just as easy to use, if not easier on the iPad as on the desk top.

So, I again changed my mind, and I think that given the opportunity again, I would take life cycles to Grade 2's with a Prezi.





I also played around with Glogster (below) and felt it was more for the younger students...  I think that Prezi and Glogster are fairly similar in function and capabilities, both allow students of any school age (Glogster for younger students; and Prezi for older students) to generate their own creations.

Both platforms are a great ways to scaffold the subject material to build on an idea/theory. 

Prezi in particular allows for the global perspective of the subject before diving deeper into the concepts - it then allows for further digging and exploring of ideas.  And students to guide themselves through the material or you can guide them with pre-set pathways, individualising the learning for more students. And as the material zooms in and out it creates a virtual scaffold that supports the learning.

Glogster is not as interactive as Prezi but is more like a digital poster that can incorporate many forms of media.  It can be used as such to make a "poster" for assessment individually or in a group, or used to support other student projects (like class talks, etc.).  It can also be used by the teacher to promote interest and start the learning journey of the student as they explore the subject areas.

Since both Prezi and Glogs are on-line, it is important to remind students about the use of the Internet in a safe, ethical and legal manner.




To sum up what I think about each presentation based tool I have used a PMI to compare the applications, mainly with the thinking that I will (hopefully) be teaching high school science...

	P	M	I
PowerPoint	On almost every computer Very easy to use Can use copy/paste functions and other desk-top editing shortcuts	Not on mobile devices Interactive aspects are possible but ‘fiddly’ to set up	Can be interactive or linear – some concepts and ideas in science just need to be linear to be understood
Prezi	Can be accessed remotely and on mobile devices Very suitable for students of all ages Easy to use Lots of templates available to get you started	Needs Internet access Can't just 'paste' items in	Students to explore the material themselves in their own learning journey Can incorporate other media (video, audio, etc.) more easily than PP
Glogster	Can be accessed remotely Easy to use More like an interactive poster, thus making it great for students to create Saves parents from the poster card and glue panic of a Sunday night...	Need Internet access Glodger (general) is available on mobile devices but the Glogster EDU app is still under development A little “simple” for senior students (compared with PowerPoint and Prezi)	Can incorporate other media (video, audio, etc.) more easily than PP Very easy for students to create their own and can be ‘published’ in many on-line web tools