Well, I really liked all of the presentations so I will just highlight a few of the key pieces that made these presentations enjoyable. First off, the variety of topics was awesome and each person did a great job of selecting an interesting topic from their field of study that they were passionate about. For all of the presentations, (Marc's, Sara's, and Sarah's especially), their passion for their lesson really shone through and definitely got me excited in the presentation they were giving. The large amount of pictures/videos displayed in all of the presentations definitely helped me to understand better what the presenter was trying to convey. I also really liked how effectively Erin used powerpoint (as she was the only remaining member of Team Powerpoint; the rest of us switched over to Prezi for this assignment) and was able to give a very interesting and intriguing presentation through powerpoint. Anyone who had technical difficulties (most notably Ryan, Sara, and Roger) were certainly able to work through them on the spot and I do not believe the loading video (or lack there of) detracted from their presentations at all.
What were the least engaging/helpful things you saw during the presentations? Why were they not effective? What could any specific student do to improve? [Please be honest here without being mean. This is for critical feedback to help others improve.]
One thing that I noticed with a few of the Prezis was that they were overloaded with pictures and movies and due to the seemingly slower than usual internet speed (at no fault of the presenters) their large video clips did not load properly. While the presenters all did wonderful jobs of thinking on their feet while this took place, I could see how antsy middle/high school students could be lost during that part of a presentation. I also noticed a few times that due to the need to press the little button on the bottom of the SMART board to jump steps, the presenters often kept their back to at least half of the audience for the majority of their presentations which could have resulted in losing the interest of any students who were behind the teacher's back. One specific piece of advice I have (the only one that I remember, at least) is to Jerry- in his presentation, there were some longer lines of text on the slides and he read them word for word, which definitely will lose the interest of a student fairly quickly.
After viewing everyone else's presentations, how would you improve your own (both how you presented and the project you made) the next time you were to give this presentation?
I would definitely prepare better in terms of knowledge on my own subject. I wrote a fairly decent paper on the AYPE back in my Junior year of college and tried to adapt it for the prezi, but it was definitely difficult as the paper was able to go much more in depth than the presentation was. I also am not entirely sure I engaged the students in the presentation as much as I could have, which I would have liked to do better. I definitely enjoyed using prezi and hope to use it many times throughout my career as a teacher (unless some new, more advanced way of teaching technologically- such as through telepathy- is invented during my tenure :) ).
Do you like using PowerPoint/Prezi/SmartBoard as a lesson presenter? What are the pros/cons of using it? How might you use it with students? Could you go back to Friday, would you have tried a different one than what you chose?
Yes, I loved the ability to create a unique presentation in Prezi and will use it fairly often in my history classes. For pros, it definitely is easy to make a cool presentation with many pictures, videos, and stops that does not necessarily have to follow the linear or even logical pattern that powerpoint constrains users to doing. For cons, though, as we witnessed in class, videos from youtube may not load and if a teacher does not have a backup plan, it could derail the whole presentation. Also, the internet is needed to use Prezi, so if for any reason a school is without internet for a day or two, any prezi presentation a teacher would have created is effectively useless. It would be sweet to make an interactive prezi type of thing for a history game, so that students could make a choice based on a question or situation presented to them, and each choice took them down a different path (I am not sure if this is even possibly, but if it is it will be awesome!!).
I believe that it can be super effective and helpful to deliver a lecture with the aide of powerpoint, prezi, or smartboard, as long as it is done in a manner that engages the students and does not simply have them copying down word for word line after line of text that is on each slide of a powerpoint or stop of prezi. I think it is also necessary to take a step back from technology every so often while lecturing and do the old-fashioned writing notes and key terms on the white board. I would say if a teacher is relying on technology for their presentations, it is imperative that they have a back up plan as well just in case the technology fails. As for why I believe technology is useful for teaching, I believe it is what kids these days are used to and so they are the most engaged when the 'entertainment' portion of their brain is activated, and hopefully I will be able to create presentations that can effectively do this!
That is all for now. Blueberry #18 out.
Hello Tim,
ReplyDeleteI agree that Prezi isn't the greatest with video loading. You mentioned that you would use Prezi for interactive activities with your students. What would the advantages, if any, be for utilizing Prezi for this purpose over Smartboard? I feel like Smartboard might be the easiest and most functional tool for an interactive classroom activity because it offers far more interactive options than Prezi.
You mentioned that people had their backs turned to the classroom- a practice which we've learned is poor. However, I noticed everyone seemed-- to an extent-- distracted a bit by lack of mastery of Prezi, which lead to backs turned to the class. I wonder what level of fluency would be necessary to maximize the effectiveness of the lesson. What are your thoughts on this?
Yeah, in hindsight that was inappropriate for me to say prezi would be a good way to interact with the students (at least compared to the SMART Board), however if I my classroom does not have a smartboard, I believe prezi would be better than powerpoint for that.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that in order to become fluent in Prezi, it would take (for me at least) 5-10 good presentations given using it, because then I could discover all the nuances that go into it and fully grasp how to use it properly :)