Prezi

Prezi lets users create, view, and share original presentations. To begin, users choose a preloaded template onto which they can import pictures and insert text. Presentations can be shared by inviting users via email to view the presentation or by sharing the URL. Because the Prezi app links with the Prezi website (www.prezi.com), users can view presentations that they created on a computer on an iPad, and vice versa. Another feature of Prezi is that users can zoom in and out of the slides when presenting or viewing their presentations. By zooming, users can make nuanced details visible in the slides that might otherwise be left unseen. Lastly, users are able to view “Featured Presentations” on their iPads created by other users.

Instructional Ideas

1. Teachers can have students view Prezi’s “Featured Presentations” to brainstorm ideas for creating their own. While reviewing these presentations, students can be instructed to provide critiques as to their likes and dislikes about each presentation.
2. Teachers can have students create presentations to report about specific topics, people, or events using Prezi. Prior to assigning, teachers should determine the assignment’s criteria, such as specified numbers of slides, images, and text required in each presentation. For research presentations, teachers can instruct students to also include a Works Cited slide. Finally, teachers can have students share their presentations by posting presentation URLs to the class website.
3. Teachers can use Prezi to create a presentation about a specific topic, person, or event, and then post it to the classroom website. Students can then be instructed to review the presentation and complete a 3-2-1 assignment that requires them to list three concepts they learned from the presentation, record two questions they have about the topic, and finally, compose a one-sentence summary of the presentation.
4. Teachers can have students read a printed narrative text and following, can instruct students to create a Prezi version of the story. To do so, students would break the story into different sections, and each section could then be represented on a separate slide within the presentation. Additionally, teachers can add another nuance to this assignment by requiring students to include an image and a specific number of words for each slide.
5. Teachers can identify a topic with several aspects and then assign an aspect of the topic to each student. Students would then use Prezi to create a presentation on the specified aspect. For example, using U.S. Presidents as the topic, teachers could assign students different presidents and students could then use Prezi to create a presentation for the assigned president. For science, the topic could be stars and students could create presentations for different stars. In foreign language, the topic could be about different cultures that share the same language, and students could create presentations about those different cultures. Once students have completed and presented their work, the presentations could then be posted to the classroom website. If this project was assigned annually, teachers could easily acquire a large collection of presentations, eventually resulting in a class library.

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