Prezi

= [|Prezi - the zooming presentation tool] =

==== Prezi is a way of organizing information graphically, then displaying it on a whiteboard. Originally, it was step up from PowerPoint, but has become more. Though daunting to learn at first, it has recently been updated to make it more user friendly. The effects are stunning, and ﻿ allow students to see relationships between concepts, not just isolated slices of content. ====

(See the Discussion Board for tutorials and helpful hints!)
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==== PowerPoint, long the favorite chestnut of Microsoft because of its being bundled with Word/Excel/etc, made producing slick presentations quite easy. You only had to choose from a limited palette of styles, fonts, and effects. As with MSWord, there are many things you can do with it, including adding a large array of audiovisual effects. Prezi does this too, but differs in how it arranges information. PowerPoint segregates information into separate slides; a great thing when you want to highlight different stages in a complex developing cycle. There are those that use PowerPoint effectively, and those who abuse it. PowerPoint can, if overused or used badly, really numb the brain and turn off students. Also, though PowerPoint is beneficial because it segments information and focuses on the parts of a system, it can harm by acting on a student like blinders on a horse, limiting perspective and obscuring connectivity between aspects of a complex system. All this is not to set you up to reject a perfectly good classroom teaching tool, just to highlight its limits and show how Prezi addresses some of them. ====

==== Prezi arranges information on a screen much like a big wall poster, allowing you to spread all information out together at once. The viewer can them be led through points in the presentation like a tour, can stop and repeat a step, zoom in to see detail, or zoom way out to see how everything links together. Recently, Prezi has updated its interface, or the device on the screen you use to manipulate pictures & text on the screen. The result is much more user friendly. [|CLICK HERE TO SEE] ====