After our brainstorming session, our group really felt as though showing professionals how to make a Prezi using Prezi would be the best method. Since Prezi does not have a voice feature (although I think they will in the future), we needed to use jing to do a screencast to make it more accessible. By coupling auditory and visual learning, we can appeal to more professionals. Not only did we create a Prezi as we progressed through the tutorial, but I made an additional Prezi describing the process to that they are able to access more of the written script. This seemed like the best medium to present the information through. If the audio does not make sense, then hopefully they will be able to follow the steps in the video, or they can access the Prezi for a good example. We had talked about including images of other Prezi's, but time was limited. It would have been nice to have additional time to show more features, as well as examples of how teachers can best use Prezi in their classroom.
During the development, I learned a lot! Jing is a challenge for me and something that I need more practice and experience using. I realized more flaws in Jing than I did using Prezi. I was suprised that my struggles were not as much with Prezi, but actually with Jing. I really enjoy using Prezi, but also found features that I wished it had, and some that I discovered. I realized that you can schedule viewing meetings with it to share the link with others. As I mentioned, I think a voice record feature or more of a timing option would be nice. There were features that I have used in Powerpoint that I could not access with Prezi. It is also a tool that you must play with and practice as far as setting the path. In my opinion the path is the most important part - making sure that you are only showing the text you want, that you don't have too many steps, that you would have something to say at each transition, and making sure that the movement will not be a problem for your audience. Students love the movement and change of direction, but adults may not be as receptive to many twists and turns.
As for Jing, the 5 minute time limit affected me, as I ended at exactly 5 minutes. I would love to use this to record information for my students when I have a sub, but would need the sub to access multiple Jings. Another feature I wish it had was being able to edit or cut parts. It would have been nice to cut out pauses. I did really like the pause feature and being able to switch screens or take a second to regroup. It seemed too that with Jing, there is room to grow. There is the settings option, but there isn't a lot offered there. It is definitely something that would become more natural with more practice, but for this project I re-recorded a lot. At one point, I tried to record just the audio using Audacity so that I could focus more on the clicking and changing screens/adding to the Prezi while it was playing, but my microphone quality then lacked. This could be very very difficult or choppy for someone not good at multitasking.
Another challenge was the requirement of images and sound effects. In my personal style, I thought we should keep it simple without distractions, but I understand the purpose of adding that element. However, the amount of sound effects is a little overwhelming. That seems like something someone might have a few go-to sounds that they use. I listened to countless ones on several sites, but none of them seemed right to include. If I were teaching a lesson, I would use them in Jing, but for a professional development, they did not seem very professional in my opinion. That is one aspect that our group struggled with and were only able to incorporate a couple. If I were to do it again, I would really consider better use of sound effects to cater to auditory learners. I think it is much easier to incorporate sounds in a lesson, for example with a vocabulary word so that they have a sound association with that word, or even having the word as a sound effect said in a unique way.
I would definitely do another project like this for staff members to have a stand alone professional development tool, this opened my ideas to creating these for several web tools that I use on a regular basis. If I were doing this project again, I would work more on the collaboration. Our group worked really well together and all did a great job together. My group members are excellent and I have really learned a lot from them in this course, and greatly appreciate their feedback and input. If we were to do it again, I may have suggested a weekly or bi-weekly group meeting, even if it is only for 10-15 minutes, just to make certain we are all on the same page. It also would have been nice to have a more cohesive final product all together, but putting that responsibility on one person was not fair. It also turned out to be helpful to be able to access specific parts that were recorded, for example, if professional has started but just needs to hear how to create a path they do not need to sit through the entire Screencast, but rather can jump straight to that section. We decided to all work together in that respect. I would have encouraged using a more developed Prezi to progress through in our Jing. The reason this could not happen, was because of the time limit, and it would be difficult for a viewer to all of a sudden see aspects in the Prezi that were not there before, and had been added without showing the addition. It would have been nice to include more features of Prezi. I think we did an excellent job with what we have, and as we discussed, it may have been a little overwhelming to show a viewer every feature all at once.
Overall, I am very pleased with the outcome of our project and am eager to share this with staff at school who have expressed an interest in using Prezi, but need a tutorial that they can access at their own leisure. This was a great opportunity.
Group Leadership Project
Part 1 How to get started with Prezi by Lisa Napierala
http://screencast.com/t/STGZvwBV
Part 2 How to move, rotate, scale and zoom by Steve Veldman http://screencast.com/t/C8PFKglY3Svt
Part 3 How to use frames and create a path by Linnea Czerney http://screencast.com/t/GzKcHHAf
Part 4 How to invite others to view by Amanda Kain
http://screencast.com/t/8umJelEDrRr
Prezi:
http://prezi.com/hghw3c2dogey/copy-of-technology/
Linnea,
ReplyDeleteNice work on Part 3! I liked the idea for using different frames for different components of your presentation (questions, etc.). I may steal that! :) Your part went a little long...and got cut off at the end...
I like the four "topics" chosen for the presentation. As a group you identified key elements that will help potential Prezi users. As I watched the separate screencasts, it was cool to see you all using the same presentation...nice touch.
Overall, your final product(s) turned out great. I respect the decision to divide and conquer and understand the reasoning. However, I was hoping you would "present" all four Jings in a more creative and unified manner. For example, if you created a website and put the Jings all on the page. That way, you could share the "site" (or wiki, or whatever tool you used) with colleagues for PD (without the blog reflection, etc.). Just my two cents. :)
I appreciate the teamwork that went into this project. You worked very well together, and your communication was great. Google Docs proved to be a powerful communication tool. I hope you are able to utilize this tool with your colleagues and students. Additionally, I hope you are able to implement Prezi into your instruction, and, more importantly, into your students' learning.
Thanks for sharing!
Chuck,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments! We did post all of the screencast links to one Google Doc to share so that we can use that in PD. If I were to present it to staff, I would probably put it on my portfolio and have them access it through my online portfolio: linneaczerneyportfolio.weebly.com and that would be a more cohesive viewing portal. I guess we did not think that far, to the actual presentation factor of the entirety.