I thought for long enough that if it’s on the Internet then it’s public and anyone can use it – this of course is naive and entirely wrong. Until the beginning of this year the internet was just a way to buy cheap music, keep in touch with friends and find funny jokes. It was a personal tool, not a professional one. Now I am responsible for a blog and a department webpage I’m starting to understand how I may feel if any of my work was used without my knowledge or permission. Now it is my knowledge that worries me most. Assuming that if I know about something that is used then I have probably offered my consent in some way. So actually it is acknowledgement that would concern me. Use my work but link it back to me.

As a teacher I want to share my ideas and practice. Sharing through blogging and social networking sites opens up my classroom to a wide audience of educational professionals. From these wonderful colleagues I receive praise, support and, most importantly, criticism and a guiding hand. My own reflections are challenged so that I consider alternative perspectives and think out of the box a little more often. Teaching can be a solitary profession even in a department where we have a program of regular self reflection and peer observation. Opening up my thoughts to a wider community helps to make me a better practitioner. The drawback is that there are unscrupulous people who will present ideas found online, in texts, in audio sources, etc as there own.

It is easy perhaps to hear or read an opinion or idea and it will come back to you as a flash of inspiration some months later when remembering the source is nigh on impossible – try hard to source the original, ask your pln, google as much as verbatim as you can. It is becoming easier with excellent bookmarking services such as delicious – I have begun to save these links with a note to remind me how I found the resource originally. Most websites offer a contact option. If you desperately cannot trace the source then admit that on your own work and attribute the work to an unknown source – eg “many thanks to the person who originally came up with this – my apologies for lack of memory – if you do stumble across this and you know who is responsible for the original please let me know so that I can properly reference the credit.”

Jenny Eather wrote a fantasitc website www.rainforestmaths.com which no longer offers public access because the website was plagerised somewhere in Asia where someone copied the code and tried to make profit from selling the program commercially. Now I have no idea how this travesty was discovered but the site was immediately locked from the public domain and is now only available through subscription and password.

The dedicated teacher who built www.teach-ict.com into a fantastic resource bank has become increadingsly frustrated by people replacing copyright notices on her work with their own and publishing it, or worse – submitting it back to her for inclusion on her own website. The running costs of hosting this site are over £3000 every year, much of which is met from the publishers own pocket, yet she has had to find time to reformat all of the documents in a bid to protect her work.

What a shame. As a resource for learning and teaching these sites are fantastic. I have shared them with many colleagues, indeed they came to me via recommendations from colleagues on my teacher training course.

We’re good at sharing provided the people accepting are using our labour to produce better learning and teaching practice. If you think an idea is good enough to make money from then get in touch and share right back.

So legally, what rights do we actually have. As if original copyright laws weren’t complicated enough the new Creative Commons Licensing is almost incomprehensible.

Highland Council, my employer states on their website (http://highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/copyright/intro/intro.htm , 28th June 2009):

“Definition: Anything original that has been created and produced by someone else whether literary, dramatic, musical or artistic is protected by copyright legislation.”

and

“Generally anything produced by an employee as part of their work for the Council, or commissioned by the Council, or using Council facilities (e.g. using ICT equipment, getting office staff to word process the material, is Highland Council’s copyright.)”

They go on to offer the following good advice:

“Assume that everything not produced by yourself is someone else’s copyright”.

We are relying on other people taking a scrupulous approach to what they see online. When I use a book I wouldn’t dream of copying ideas, quotes or pictures without, in my own work, properly referencing the source. My attitiude has now been well and truly changed to catch up with the modern world of information. Using resources is completely different to claiming resources are your own. I very much like and agree with Highland Council’s advice and will bear it in mind as I try to make sense of copyright in the future.

Some useful resources:

• A creative commons search engine: http://search.creativecommons.org/
• The Creative Commons website: http://creativecommons.org/
• A Guide To Copyright Licensing in Schools: http://www.licensing-copyright.org/
• LTS Web Standards and Guidelines: http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/webstandards/ipr/index.asp
• Copyright4Learning – a collaborative wiki: http://copyright4learning.wetpaint.com/
• Copyright Guidelines for Highland Schools: http://highlandschools-virtualib.org.uk/copyright/intro/intro.htm

As part of module 1 on the EPICT course I have been asked to use the BECTA framework to evaluate electronic resources for teaching and learning.

As a teacher it is important for me to consider the implications of any resource that I use in the classroom. Throughout teacher training I was required to justify my methodology for every class so I was always asking myself questions such as ‘how does this build upon previous knowledge?’, ‘why will this engage the pupils?’, ‘am I meeting the differentiated needs of every pupil?’ and ‘what theory can I draw upon to justify the use of this activity instead of that one?’.  Following the lesson I would reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly to make the next lesson a more satisfying learning experience.  Evaluation is a continual process and as I become more familiar with topics and the different course aims I can definitely say that while it is definitely becoming easier it is still just as importat.

Any resource that I use in a lesson is subject to the same scrutiny – if it doesn’t add value to the learning and teaching or show potential to then I will not use it again.  I must use some form of evaluation which provides more concrete  proof of added value than simply my instinct.  EPICT have recommended the BECTA framework below as one good example of a structured and objective way to decide whether an electronic resource is worthwhile.

BECTA One Page Evaluation – Get more Business Documents

A fine start to evaluating any resource particularly if you want to share it.  All of the essentails are covered by the detail questions and tick boxes in the top 2 sections.  This makes it easy to understand what/who the content may be suitable for.

A deeper understanding of the content and it’s intended use is required for the next section which asks the user to question the structure, content and how learning objectives will be achieved in more detail.

All in all this framework offers a very comprehensive check list for resources.  So why am I not impressed?  My initial impression of the form was that it was cluttered and inappropriate for purpose.

I think it is trying to squeeze too many types of resource into one proforma.  By trying to ease the administration of evaluating resources by having just one form, this framework creates an overcomplicated monster which ensures for any evaluation that some of the questions will be irrelevant.  This means that each time I will have to select which questions need answered.  As time gets short this will ensure that I will, eventually, choose to only complete the title.

There are 3 forms of ICT resource I would like to identify because each may require different evaluation process.

1.  Commercial resources which are content rich and subject specific. For example, in maths I would consider this kind of evaluation for packages such as Autograph, Geometer’s Sketchpad and Abacus. All of these are subject specific applications and wholly different monsters to online resources.

2.  Online tools, ie: Web2.0 – wiki, blog, collaboration, VLE, file-share, photo and podcast. All of these tools are available free of charge with no additional software to download and can be adapted to suit any age and stage of learning and any subject.

3.  Web resources – websites which provide useful content – eg: mathsisfun, rainforest, world clock, BBC Bitesize, stats for schools, etc. These can be static webpages full of information or interactive sites, usually in the form of games and challenges for maths, often just interactive pages which can consolidate learning and understanding of topics.

Consider the questions asked under Content, Structure and Achieving Learning Objectives. These are valid for every source. For any method of delivery, as a teacher, I need to consider how the use of a resource or learning tool will aide and enhance learning. I need to understand what the learning intentions are for every lesson and plan accordingly whether online resources, or any other ICT, are being used or not.  But I’m not sure I need 3 full columns of questions to answer to help me decide.  After all, I go through this process for each of my non-electronic resources.

What I’m looking for is a way to evaluate electronic resources not just any resources. So let’s bin the pedagogy from the evaluation and assume that teachers will continue to exercise vigilance and professionalism in their choices for the classroom.

What’s different then?  A fellow student on the EPICT forum suggested that safety is not mentioned on the form.  Internet safety is most certainly a new consideration.  Open forums and comments, advertising and links could all present unsuitable material.

A colleague at Highland Council has reminded me that we should consider Accesibility and complete an equalities and diversity impact assessment.  Now these are things that I have never even thought of and I feel now are part of what makes electronic resources different.

To conclude, the first part of the form offers standard information about who, what and how which is great for managing resources, filing them away under criteria which help to quickly eliminate or select resources in the future.  The second part of the form is not required because I will continue to evalute the teaching and learning part of any resource as normal.  The questions are adequate but, unecessary I feel, as part of the process of evaluating the ‘electronic’ function of the tools.  Finally, a part 3 is required to address the associated risks that apply specifically to electronic resources.

I’m not sure how I want to end this.  I have not fulfilled the aim of the course by completing an evaluation of a resource, rather I have evaluated the evaluation.  Most importantly the question has made me more aware of completing some sort of formal questionnaire which forces me to consider the suitability of resources in a more structured manner and with more care.  What that structure should be is still a mystery to me.  Does anyone out there have a comprehensive, but simple, evaluation system in place already?

Next time I go to make a recommendation or a choice for the classroom I will try to write down my own thought processes and take it from there.

I often feel a little overwhelmed by the amount of technology leads I receive and consider.  To begin with I found it difficult to evaluate resources without trying them out with a class.  It’s often hard to imagine how a class will react to different methods – I guess the daily surprises are why I enjoy teaching quite so much.  Now I’m finding it easier to place tools appropriately but finding it harder to keep track of the good ones.  So I’ve gone back to basics and had another look at what I use every day – the Interactive Whiteboard.

I have a SMARTboard in the classroom, running with Notebook 10 and the full gallery of resources download.  All the latest software is available from the website including a free student download which enables pupils to open and amend Notebook files and access most of the tools.  Use of the interactive features of these boards is highly encouraged to engage pupils – I’m not bad at this but there is a lot more I’m sure I could be doing.  I worry too little about sticky fingerprints on the actual board.  Next year I want to see more.

OK – where do I start?

Last week I dug out an old email from a colleague in the Physics department – it was a link to  José Picardo‘s video:

Top five tips for creating resources for the interactive whiteboard

I watched it again, understanding more than last time and tried out some more of the ideas including the magic pen for magnifying and highlighting small chunks of work and the word reveal tricks.

It occurred to me that even the board can offer so much potential that I have not yet realised, without me learning new ICT skills or finding new software.  All this was going to take was a little effort.

Next port of call is the Gallery – it really is about time I found time to rake through all of the resources instead of just searching for something which suits a lesson plan.  It’s rather convenient then that I had an unexpected 4 hour train journey yesterday.  The train to Thurso thankfully has first class seats and no first class tickets which means that anyone can make use of the free plugs as long as you embark quick enough!

I’m pleased to report that I came across a lot of tools that I have used before but here are the ones that I promise to use this year.

Clocks – An assortment of clock face resources which can be used for show me activities, a teacher led lesson or as an interactive tool with pupils creating the questions.

Unit circles – Radians, degrees or both – you decide – precise accurate and much more visually stimulating than anything I could draw.

Dice – 10 sided dice that the pupils can roll and race.  Or dice that speak in foreign languages for a little cross curricular work – there’s even one where you can choose what goes on each side – or rather  the pupils can!

Symmetry – 2 Flash activities that pupils can use alone if you’ve got the ICT access or as a class – ready made reflection and rotation resources.  You can achieve this using the flip tools but this looks more professional.

Algebraic Fractions – A brief lesson, more suitable as a consolidation lesson than an introduction because the quiz is a stormer.

Quadratics and Straight Lines and Trig graphs – There are plenty of online resources and maths packages which will create these graphs and allow you to change the variables showing the transformation of the graphs but why look elsewhere when the gallery holds them anyway.  These simulations are clear and easy to manipulate.

Nets – A quick movie showing different 3D shapes being opened out and closed up – supplements physical practice without getting covered in prit stick at the front of the class.

Indices – the first tool I found allowed you to enter an integer value and a power – can be used to show square, cube numbers to lower ages/abilities and patterns involved with higher orders further up the school.  Followed by a smashing game of snap where you have to think quick to simplify indices and surds and spot the correct equality from a choice of changing cards.  Great starter for a higher set.

Interactive Ruler – and finally….you can move this ruler around the page just like the standard one but in addition you can set the arrows to do the measuring for you.  Pupils can read the scale then check their answers interactively.

So my pledge is to use these tools and I would urge you to give them a try too.  iwb-ideas

I’ve just woken up on the couch.  It’s Sunday evening, my third year reports are due on Tuesday and I’ve been avoiding them all weekend.  This post is further procrastination but I’m sure that it will at least be useful in the long term.

Myself and some colleagues were in the school staffroom one lunchtime last week.  Our conversation wasn’t very big or clever, we were maturely discussing which fruit offered the best qualities by regarding how easy it was to select tasty fresh pieces in a supermarket and also it’s portability. For example – how do you choose a fresh pear and can you eat a kiwi without cutlery?

It’s a typically, trivial topic for our staffroom and although I have no evidence to support this, I suspect we’re not the only people who fall for the great cake/biscuit debate from time to time.

My tuppence worth was to suggest that tinned fruit was definitely the way to go – no surprises when you open the tin and it’s just as good for you as the real thing.  Our home economics teacher wasn’t so sure.  Surely all of the goodness is boiled away in pasteurisation?  Flash boiling kills the bugs that are alive before the canning process – can this also destroy the vitamins?  Vitamins are not alive, so can they be killed or eliminated in another way due to the process?  We, as a group of reasonably well educated people, concluded that we didn’t know whether tinned or fresh was actually better and left content.  (Although the home ec teacher did suggest that she wouldn’t rest until she actually knew.)

So why have I just woken up on the couch on a Sunday evening thinking about this?  It’s the potential Curriculum for Excellence learning opportunities that arise from this question that have just struck me like the proverbial bolt.

 Which is better – fresh fruit or canned?

Following Fearghal Kelly’s structure how could the initial discussion with a class work out?

How can we tell which is better?

·         Measure how much goodness is in fruit

Where can we find the information?

·         Online research

·         Science

How can we present our findings and extend our knowledge to different food?

·         Display work

·         Testing

Why do we can food anyway?

And we’re off…..

The pupils have chosen how they are going to answer the question, taking responsibility for their learning and the first steps to engaging in the task.

My bias is maths so here’s where I would go next.

With the raw data I now have several options for topics so I’m going down the road of a term long project to cover all of them. Unlike my last post where I suggested  only  vague ideas and the potential to learn a range of skills this time I’m thinking a little deeper and trying to fit them into learning outcomes.

The most obvious start point is statistics or information handling.  From a large list of data we can cover any of these outcomes to any different level from simple bar charts to standard deviation comparisons and beyond.

The next is percentages, what is the percentage difference between the fresh and canned information?   This can be extended to include fractions and probability, estimation and decimals, differentiated to the level of the class involved.

What about weight, measure and volume outcomes?   We will be dealing with everything from micrograms to kilograms, quantities that can be increased to suit the learning depending only on the information that we base the project on.  This too can be differentiated to incorporate basic number calculations or extended to include standard form notation and calculations.

Ratio and proportion, a notorious concept for pupils at a younger age can be introduced.

Problem solving.  Pupils throughout school age have difficulty explaining in words the meaning of their calculations.  A strong emphasis can be placed on evaluating and interpreting the numbers produced.

Will that keep us busy for a couple of months?  I do hope so. 

What about assessment – how do I know if the pupils have learned anything?  More importantly, how do the pupils know if they have learned?  It is hard to let go of complete control as a class teacher.  If I can’t have 3 standard block tests anymore I at least want to hold onto some justification and control.

Formative assessment would continue as normal in the classroom and I can easily test their skills with a summative assessment that can provide evidence of progress with a grade for the school, the parents, the pupils and me.  It may not be entirely in the spirit of Curriculum for Excellence but it will satisfy my need to know!

My own preference would be to provide the pupils with a smaller sample of information on another food and ask for a report.  I would differentiate the task by the degree of openness of the questions.

While we’re busy in the maths department what else can be done around the school?

History – the origins of canning food and other ways to preserve food – perhaps jam is as good as strawberries?

Science – hopefully some of the information can be discovered in the lab.  Are there experiments that can be completed to test the any vitamin levels?  How does pasteurisation work?  What does deteriorate the quality of vitamins and minerals?

Home economics – food nutrition and healthy living has a clear link.  Of course, there is the taste test too.

PE – the food nutrition link.

English/Literacy – report writing skills, factual text, making clear conclusions and

Art – creating display work or using fruit as a subject – perhaps a look at very under-ripe and over-ripe products?

Languages – I once saw a tin of tiny octopuses at a party in my student days and they eat a lot of tinned tongue on Ch4’s Shipwrecked.  Are these delicacies from particular countries – I wonder what else you could find on the local supermarket shelves in other countries and indeed what may not be available in other countries.

ICT – research, presentation.

How can the project be extended? 
It has been reported in the press recently that fruit is being picked far too early so that it can be packaged and dispatched around the world.  In doing this the fruit has no time to mature and develop the vitamins and merits for which it is known.

This could open an even bigger can of worms; modern studies – import/export, labour, fair trade; geography – environment, climate, carbon footprint; why not chuck in the global economy as a topical debate while we’re on the subject – or rather every subject.

I wish I could summon these ideas on demand, particularly in meetings where, as a department, we scratch our heads trying to find ways to incorporate the new ethos of Curriculum for Excellence without jeopardising the numeracy and mathematical skills of the next generation of pupils to trust us with their futures.  For now I’ll settle for the random moments of clarity and continue to write them down here.

My apologies for the ‘can of worms’ comment – although I’m sure if we looked hard enough……

Thanks to Dan Meyer’s blog post My Lesson Plan: The Door Lock for this!
I read Dan’s post initially from a twitter link but my memory is dreadful so I’m afraid I can’t tell you who brought it to my attention.

However, I got myself into a conversation about problem solving strategies with my second year class this morning and used this as a trigger for discussion.  With the picture on the board I asked simply “what is the combination?”.

The discussion that ensued was based around what further information was needed to answer the problem because the maths required to state the number of possible solutions is beyond their capabilities for now.

The class came up with a single questions that they wanted answersed before they would go any further. 

How many numbers are in the code?

I only told them when they told me that they would normally find the answer to this in the question itself and what strategy they were going to try when they found out.  Some sort of ordered list seemed to be the favourite and armed now with the fact there were 3 consecutive numbers in the code they continued.

Conversation and debate followed about what consectutive could mean, whether or not they could be consecutive in decreasing order and whether 0 could follow 9.

We got it down to 14 options and everyone agreed they needed more information.  The code must be divisible by 2, the first number must be greater than the last and and the sum of the digits is fifteen elimiated all but one and brought us to a conclusion.

The important lesson today was not the maths – I know that my class can divide by 2, add to 15 and use number order.  What was beneficial was to look for the questions that had to be answered because the answers to these normally lie in the text of the question itself if they would just remember to go looking for it!

A fantastic resource and a lesson that the pupils can direct and to some degree structure themselves with the questions their own questions.  I see more potential every time I look at this and also remember that sometimes the simplest resources and ideas can provide the richest tasks.

My last post uncovered a road to Curriculum for Excellence which could keep a class engaged for a whole term, if not longer, with the arms and legs that could be developed from the initial idea.  This concept feels much more controlled.  Reading other comments on Dan’s original blog I can understand the different levels that could be investigated but for my class this was an ideal single lesson activity which empowered them to take control without me losing it.  I had a class agenda from the outset, to explore problem solving strategies, and was able to deliver my message without simply telling them.

After I’ve caught up on all the soaps, Lost and the new series of Red Dwarf I’ll have to think about what to be aiming for this term.

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My only firm plan at the moment is that it must be ICT related.
I’ve started a couple of draft posts which need more work and could relate well to the EPICT course I’m doing.  This, in turn, would suggest that the work should improve my own teaching practice.  Some ideas I have contemplated are;

1. The use of social networking as an educational tool
2. Internet security – copyright and access issues
3. VLEs – research and general implementation for a secondary maths course
4. Adding value to the department’s teaching and learning strategies and plans using the website
5. Blogging – any use for maths?
6. Podcasting problems and solutions, tools to use, making it appealing to our target audience – terror teenagers
7. Finding teacher-led resources to ehance teaching and learning of a maths and numeracy curriculum that pupils want to engage with outside the classroom.

I have to remember that I can’t assume access to computer facilities or internet with my own pupils.  Mostly outwith my control.  Not enough access at school and often unreliable.  Easy to suggest local library but many of the kids can’t get into town to manage even that.

It’s far too easy to forget the target and get carried away with applications that look good.  Do the pupils engage more with visually attractive chalk and talk lessons than good old written notes and diagrams.  Perhaps this is where I will start?  I suggested during ICT presentations last year that one of the main benefits of the IWB was the drawing tools which provide a clearer visual for the pupils but I often have to sketch a freehand example on the other board to help the pupils to illustrate notes and to allow me to explain details.

The biggest benefit of blogging is the opportunity to free-type, let your thoughts flow and talk yourself into a conclusion.  Lots of research to begin it is then.  Let’s consider in a professional and academic manner how much impact the visual aspect of lessons has on learning and teaching without an interactive element.  Is talk and chalk as good as talk and fancy illustrations?

Watch this space.

Consider the boy in my class who cannot read.  He cannot communicate in writing.  He can write by copying symbols but cannot make sense of them after they are drawn.  He can write his first name because he is familiar with what it should look like.

Then consider a site which will give him oral instructions, explain questions out loud whilst highlighting the same question on screen and finally gives him the opportunity to say the answer out loud.  This site will congratulate him when he is correct, learn his weaknesses and help him to move forward.  If anyone knows of such a site with a focus on maths I would appreciate the URL.  I already use some which learn the users and help them to consolidate work which they find difficult, some which use oral commands and I have heard of voice recognition programmes which I am sure will be developed in the near future.  This is my ideal programme though – if it is available I haven’t seen it, if it isn’t then perhaps it’s not too far off.

Now consider the girl in my class who was convinced that 5+1 = 51.  She logged on to www.worldmathsday.com on Friday and answered 10 mental maths questions correctly in 1 minute.  She was 13 (in a UK S1 class normally aged 12 at this time of year) and entered as an 11 year old to participate in this worldwide challenge but she was unaware of this.  She was so delighted that it took me a while to pull her back down from the ceiling.  Her maths is no more accomplished now than ever before but she will enter my classroom on Monday with a positive attitude, thinking that she is now good at maths and that will make learning so much easier for her.

This has nothing to with the girl’s learning style but the work on the computer in just one day has increased her confidence more than any good exam mark could have done.

So let’s look at my S5 class.  I’ve spent many long hours on www.edu20.org creating a VLE for my fifth year class.  The topic I chose to cover as my experiment was spreadsheets, a very small part of their course but one which I felt they would recognise as a benefit to them in the world of work.  I told them about the site 3 days before we got near a computer in school - 3 out of 14 had logged on before we got there.  Now is not the time or place to discuss the motivations of the class but I can tell you I was impressed by this.  When we did all get logged on together the pupils worked away without question or quarrel.  I have no doubt that the dynamic nature of the work, the instant feedback, the ownership of their online profiles all contributed to their enthusiasm that day.  Time will tell if their good will persists – about a week in fact which is when I have set their assignment due. 

In short, the VLE can provide a more personal learning experience.  If the pupil want audio instructions, they can go find them.  If they need a demonstration they just need to find the correct keywords to search.  As a class teaching presenting a lesson I can only try to suit every different learning style and hope I am at least touching on them all. 

Technology can meet the needs of specific learning styles more effectively that a classroom teacher meeting the requirements of a class of 20 but we’re not quite there yet.

Consider the work involved to tailor VLE’s to every course at every level – I find it impossible to imagine how much time that would take.  Would it be worth it?  If that boy can take one more step to understand his maths or if that girl can win one more competition then my answer is a resounding – Yes!

At the beginning of the year I decided it was about time to get up to date with technology and 6 weeks in I reckon it’s time to reflect on some what I have learnt.

Firstly, this is a blog post, not a wiki entry or a moodle module or a ning.  Actually I still don’t know what a ning actually is.  Apart from this blog I have purchased domain names and webspace and I am now responsible for a personal website, an unfinished VLE and a wiki for the department at school.  I will tweet about this post once it is finished so that people know it’s here and it will automatically link to my RSS and my webpage. (I think!)

Anything too long to tweet should be a blog post.  If it’s something you want to be permanent it should be a blog page or permanent web page not a blog post.  If it’s not related to your page, start a new something altogether!

Now, did I get all that right?

The thing is, there is so much information that it’s getting harder and harder to know where to start.  I reckon the best thing to do is pick a username and password and have a look at everything you come across.  Read the forums and sign up for everything.  Just like learning a new sport, you’ll pick the rules and tricks up as you go along and the more you take part, the more accomplished you become.

I enjoy most things that involve meeting new people and sitting down so this mini adventure has been great for me.  Lots still to learn – how to add a hyperlink to my blog header for starters, after that I want to actually understand my website – grimacing at the thought!

Have a go, give it a try – now just to decide what will be useful in the classroom…..

www.prezi.com takes you to a new era in presentation software.

At last there is a user-friendly, aesthetically pleasing and very different alternative to power point.

Now I have been a fan of PPT since I could open Windows so I was a little skeptical that anything else could offer all of the above and I’m not ready to throw Office out just yet – regardless of which version is enforced upon me.

Any application that does not have standard microsoft protocols unnerves me a little – I like to know that I can always right click for options or cut and paste using the ctrl key.  So Prezi took a little bit of time to get the hang of.  That said, although I did manage to complete the tutorial before I got started I never looked at the help file.

The software is very intuitive – click once – if it didn’t do what you expected, click somewhere else until it does.  The themes are straightforward and uncomplicated and although there may not be enough variety to keep everyone amused for too long there is plenty for now.  No doubt the developers will add more as time allows.  The current options keep presentations clear and uncluttered of unnecessary formatting.  Having created and seen some very colourful disasters in the past I like being forced to focus on content instead of format.

Moving around Prezi presentations is very flexible.  Either use the arrows to follow a preset order or zoom out and jump around at will.  This will be incredibly useful in the classroom – instead of directing classes I will be able to follow their path through topics, ensuring that all learning outcomes are met but in an order that the class choose.  This allows the pupils to take more control (feel more in control??) of their own lesson without me jeopardising the learning intentions.  I like to be able to build upon pupil responses in class discussions and Prezi allows me to do this without suggesting “we’ll come back to that later”.

In a similar way Prezi will be a very useful tool for brainstorming topics.  I can’t wait to try this out on the whiteboard tomorrow – the simplicity of the construction may make it viable to use as a tool which the pupils can interact with in the classroom.  The application window has no toolbars so I’m unsure how it will interact with tools such as the whiteboard keyboard  – will post a wee update as soon as I get a chance.

Prezi won’t replace Power Point in my classroom but I can see it playing an important role in the future.  I am delighted that I have found this software and look forward to playing more with it!

See my first presentation about vocabulary for Int II at http://prezi.com/9412/