On Prezi

Apart from not liking the name—Prezzo would have been way better—I really like Prezi. I think anything that encourages a bit of originality and is different from the status quo i.e. PowerPoint (which I think is dreadfully boring and completely visually unappealing) is good. Most people have way too much text on each slide and a presentation simply turns into a read-a-thon.

I really like that Prezi is non-linear, and I love the zooming and panning effect. I love that it looks cool, and I love the minimality of it.

I found I wanted more control over the text colours, and the direction or shape of the path, that is, I wanted to be able to specify paths more manually. I also wanted to be able to change the order of objects, i.e. send the backwards or forwards for example.

This is the Prezi I created. It was going to be about something else, but when the template came up, I instantly went, “Water cycle!” and my mind was made up. I had fun creating it, and I think it would be an engaging tool to teach this idea.

I think that Prezi would be an invaluable tool to increase student engagement, and to break the ‘linear presentation’ mould. Having said that, I think there would be a learning curve, and I think that the linear mould would be hard to break, because most kids would have, unfortunately, grown up using PowerPoint.

On Glogster

I really dislike the name ‘Glogster’. I tried it out, but didn’t like the website at all, or the idea of ‘glogs’. The name has a gluggy feel to it that turns me off.