Link to the site: https://prezi.com/
At the time of writing this blog we're still in lockdown and having to teach remotely. One of the challenges that we face is trying to find ways to convey our subject which don't always rely on hosting a webinar. Webinars can be great but they do require the students to be available at the time you host them otherwise they have to rewatch them back, which is not always ideal.
I much prefer to record a presentation detailing the subject information and the tasks I would like the students to do and share that with them so they can pick it up at some point during the day.
When it comes to delivering remotely you have two choices either you add considerably more information and detail to your presentation to make up for the lack of it being presented by you to the learners or you record a voice over or video.
What is it.
There are a wealth of tools out there that will help you do this, including Adobe Spark.
The one I am going to look at today is Prezi video. I'm sure many of you will be aware of the Prezi presentation tool it's been around for a while.
If you click here you can read my post on the original Prezi presentation tool.
Those not familiar with Prezi it's a presentation tool that gives you one large canvas that you can position your frame or frames wherever you want. I like it because it allows the viewer to go on a journey, because they can see the whole canvas at start then get a better picture for where the narrative is going within your presentation.
How to use it.
So back to Prezi video, it combines both a video image of the presenter talking and images and text that appear in vision surrounding them.
As with the normal version of Prezi you have a slight reduced palette of options available to you on the free version. If you want the full features there's a monthly subscription. However I think in most cases the free version would suit the majority of users.
So how to use it, once you have logged on select video from the menu on the left hand side. If this is the first time you have used the video feature within Prezi it will ask you to give you a permission to access your webcam and microphone. Next you'll be asked to choose from one of the many templates that are available. The templates position different shapes around the frame. Having chosen your template you can choose whether to appear in vision or just to have normal slides, for me I think there's no point in not appearing within shot, Otherwise it's just like using the version of Prezi to present.
Having chosen your template you can add additional frames with text and images as you go. Once you have completed editing a presentation the next stage is to record a video of you talking through your presentation advancing the frames as you go. When you finish recording you have the option to either to re-record it or save it adding a title and a description share it via a link. If you pay for the subscription version you are able to download it or share it via YouTube and other social media platforms.
Like the presentation version of Prezi I like it's ease of use and the on-screen instructions make it very simple to work with. I could see it being of great benefit for teachers in helping them to create flipped learning content. And similarly I could see students finding it a valuable tool for creating presentations for assignments.
Here is my video guide to using Prezi video: