Prezi -- Pimp My Presentation

Well, I sadly missed the last get-together with other Island Lake friends because I was dying from the worst summer cold EVER.  It was so bad that I even skipped the final Mounds View championship baseball game!

But, I survived.... and had to forge the Prezi Path alone.  This terrified me, because I've seen Prezi presentations before and figured they had to be impossible to create.  Trust me, I explored the Animoto and Popplet options, but of course wasn't interested in paying $$ further on down the road.

So, I spent a few hours with Prezi.  I had a GREAT time!  I'm very comfortable with Powerpoint, so the left-hand slides eased my fears.  The tutorial video was great.  I must admit, too, that seeing colleagues' presentations helped me realize that I CAN do this.

I used a template, and noticed Heather's comment to carefully plan b/c adding/deleting slides isn't easy.

I did try to add a frame, but then it appeared to the left of my big-screen picture and that annoyed me.  The flow still worked with the overall presentation, but I didn't like it in the overview, so I removed it.  Then, I slid the pictures I was going to add into the name slots next to my kids' names, but couldn't make THOSE into separate pop-out frames.  So, the pictures stayed static (too small) but I'm fine with it for now.

Next,  I'd like to build one from scratch, so I can better understand how to add frames and arrows.  But for now I'm pretty pumped with all I learned.

I can see using this for venn diagrams, illustrating cause-effect, KWL charts, showing Learning Targets.... the sky would be the limit.  Mindy's comments about 13-years old for usage means it would have to be teacher created -- though students could contribute ideas.  I also see that Prezi has a free iPad/iPhone app, so I've already downloaded that and watched my presentation on my phone!

Now I'm trying to embed the Prezi and I don't think it's working.  I may have to wait for reinforcements on Tuesday!  Argh!