PowerPoint-+Prezi

PowerPoint Presenting students with the information is something as teachers we do almost on a daily basis. I thought it would be great to discuss how we use or don't use PowerPoint in our classrooms (now or in the future). I use to be a boring powerpoint presenter. I would bullet everything and then write everything on the slides that I was going to say. Boring! Then I took a course here at SJC, Computers in the Classroom, where I learned how to use PowerPoint. Of course when I started to use all the features, I was using them way to much which becaome overkill on my presentations. Now I feel I have progressed to using PowerPoint as a powerful tool to keep my students intrigued while learning. I still use bullets but more effectively, I insert videos, images, and files that help me to enhance what I am trying to convey to my students and alsow helps me to stay organized while presenting. I also use PowerPoint to create games such as Jeopardy. I use these types of Power Point games or reviews of tests, quizzes, or recaps of the units. The kids love them. I have shared the file of the Jeopardy I use below. If you search the internet you can find several sites that offer free templates or copy mine and then just plug in your information.

Jeopardy File

Also here is a great video from YouTube by Don McMillan called Life after Death by PowerPoint. The video is funny. He talks about how you can go a little crazy using many of the features which should help the viewer be aware of what not to do to your PowerPoint presentation. Enjoy. //Kate //

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Kate, these are great, thanks so much! I love the //Jeopardy!// game you created for your high school students. I used to work almost exclusively in PowerPoint. I worked for the education division of The Humane Society for ten years doing workshops all over the country and in the Caribbean on humane education and I always used PowerPoint. My boss was really big on spinning text and animation, so I had a lot of what Don McMillan says not to include! After my decade of working for a nonprofit I went to work for a for-profit virtual consulting company where I was their director of administrator (and had the experience of working from home--I hated it!). I used to have to perform quality control checks on intellectual property (i.e., PowerPoint slides) that high-paid consultants had created and the CFO had then paid tens of thousands of dollars to translate (into Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, etc). I had to make sure the colors were changed to the purchasing company's colors, logos were changed, and fonts and spacing matched up. Some of those slides were for multiple-day workshops and ran well over 500 slides. I'll never forget how surprised I was to learn that there's a "Notes" section on the bottom of each PowerPoint slide! Thank God there are so many more presentation options these days! There's nothing like looking out at an audience of 100 where 1/3 of them are struggling to stay awake and follow along your bullet points! :) - Lisa

I like that Prezi seems more animated than powerpoint, but it seems like the web of circles and words flying all around could make your eyes wacky. The Prezi's I've viewed were fast moving and I found myself thinking whoa...slow down!!! Is this really a downfall with Prezi or did I just watch fast paced Prezi's? Is this something anyone has tried out with young learners? How would you implement this tool into your reading instruction? This is a link to a quick and basic video on how to create a [|Prezi]~Michelle I like using Prezi. I have used it before. Michelle you are right in how much more animated it is compared to PowerPoint. It is fast paced but you can always control how fast it goes (maybe that was just how the presenter chose to create it). You can create an account and you get more storage if you use an email account that is linked with your school or work. I have one and I store all my presentations there. I havent tried uploading a PowerPoint and turning it into a Prezi. Has anyone?-Sara

I love Prezi! When I was first introduced to Prezi, I found it difficult to learn. After some practice, I felt more comfortable on how Prezi worked. I think that Prezi is much more engaging than a PowerPoint presentation is. Especially when I use Prezi with my SmartBoard, the students absolutely love it. One the first day of school, I start off class telling a little bit about myself. I wanted to really find a way to hook the students when I first met them, so I decided to create a Prezi about myself. Here it is: Prezi about Miss Nascimento Do you think this made a difference on the students' impression of me or would it not have mattered? -Christina

I love your presentation Christina! It was so cute! This definitly made a difference, epeically showing it on the first day of school. Students got to know you better and the fact that students were watching it move really made a differnece...it kept their attention. t has inspried me to make one about myself to show students in a fuute class-Sara Here is the prezi I created for [|train station vocabulary]It was originally a PowerPOint and I uploaded it to create this prezi. it works out better and I like it a lot more. The kids loved it too!-Sara

I am glad there are finally other options to powerpoint. In college, everyone had the same background and effects. One powerpoint was just like the next. I have not used Prezi, but you have certainly inspired me to check it out! - Brianna