Thursday, February 25, 2010

Please, please, not another PowerPoint!

Whether you are a teacher trying to incorporate technology or a business person trying to not put everyone in a coma, there is one dreaded foe for attention.

The PowerPoint presentation.

I've found a free, yes you heard me, free alternative to PPT.  Through a website known as Prezi, you can create unique presentations.  They zoom around, going to fine print back to super print.  They can be as complicated or simple as you wish.  The one thing is, they aren't PowerPoint.

Pros:
  • Simple learning curve.  With the videos on the website you can easily put together your own presentation in just a few minutes.
  • Unique.  Enough said.  
  • Impressive looking.  I promise, you don't have to tell anyone how easy it was.  They'll think you are a genius!
Cons:
  • Limited functionality.  If you are one of those people that likes to use animated gifs or music in your powerpoints, you're out of luck.  You're limited to embedding only pictures and pdfs.  
  • Limited customizability.  They have nine color schemes, two of which aren't in English. Each color scheme has three fonts available.
  • Internet connection.  While you can download the presentations or embed them in a blog, you do need internet connection to create them.
Overall:
I'd highly recommend Prezi.  It's not something I would use everyday, because after a while the new-ness will wear off (like any other presentation tool).  It's easy to learn and does look fairly impressive when done.

More information:
Prezi

An example of a Prezi I created in about 10 minutes.  Press the forward and back button to zoom in and out.  You can also click more to watch it in full screen.


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