I think people are too hard on Powerpoint, it strikes me that we are often too eager to damn the medium rather than the presenter when our concentration wains. Slideshows can still be innovative, one of my favourite bands when I was at university was the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who crafted songs to go with vintage slides picked up from carboot sales. Jennifer Egan's A visit from the Goon Squad features an entire chapter in powerpoint (you can find Egan's tips on using the medium for telling stories here).
Prezi combines the "canvas" approach of the blackboard and the slides of Powerpoint. While it's good at making presentations spin and swirl I think its strength lies in the ability to arrange the information on a canvas and draw connections between them. I'm a rather dull chap when it comes to presentations; I only like the motion between prezi "slides" when it is used to carry out a narrative - for example the zoom in function is great if used to emphasise a detail and if the panning movements represent a logical train of thought from start to finish - otherwise it's pointless and makes me feel a bit seasick. In other words, I want as few things between the information and me as possible.
If I were to use Prezi for presentations I would try to stick by some rules:
- Zoom to focus on detail and pan out to generalise, to cover a wider issue, or overarching point
- Twist and swirl to demonstrate conflicting arguments
- Use left to right movement to construct a narrative or a sense of progression
- Never do something for the sake of it
- Always make sure you are the main focus of the presentation
I have put some effort into thinking of an interesting prezi but at the moment I am without inspiration. Luckily, when my sister was taking a course in teaching english as a foreign language I suggested that she use Prezi to liven up her classes, which I think is a good simple example of using its strengths without becoming nauseating.
The key thing is that we have a range of tools at our disposal and can use them as we need to. You can get both good and bad prezis and ppts so good you've drawn up some guidelines for yourself.
ReplyDeleteTrying to think if I can guess who your lecturer was! Yes you're right, simple can be great, and I have been to some really engaging library talks which didnt use any visuals. However in todays world students are more used to visual stimulations, and to being able to download and print out handouts, esp if they missed a lecture and even more so if they. Are paying £9k for it.
Ppt canbe seen as more professional or serious, prezi as more dynamic but these are very broad definitions
Rowena 23 things team
It was Vassilis. Did you get it?
ReplyDeleteI think there is a problem with student perception of lectures, aside from the debate of spoon-fed education, which leads to a broader point on information literacy. As a student I knew others who didn't see a point in going to the lectures when the slides were available (this wasn't helped by some lecturers who seemed only to read the slides and give few elaborations). For me the problem is a confusion over information media, where the perception is that access to one source is "good enough"; the slides are regarded as the lecture being a good example. In other words, a student wanting a ppt as the lecture in place of notes taken as a record of the lecture, which is the more valuable information source. As information professionals we should make an effort to communicate this... yet my traineehsip has taught me that current generations have a confidence/arrogance about their information literacy that is not necessary well placed.