Prezi

Prezi is a wonderful presentation tool which allows you to organize and share your ideas other than the typical Powerpoint. Prezi is web-based, also has iOS app which allows you to access your Prezi's anywhere online or off. They have recently added Prezi Desktop without the use of any internet connection and you can now store your presentations locally and then upload them to Prezi.com if you want to share them. The only catch with Prezi Desktop you must have a Pro or Edu Pro account to access it at anytime but others can download a free 30 day trial. You do need to sign up for an account to start creating Prezi's. 

Prezi is a presentation tool that allows you to either have a virtual blank canvas or a template canvas. Prezi is 3D, you can guide your audience through a spatial journey of your presentation. Zooming out to show the overview of your prezi, zoom in to show the details/ideas.

The nice thing about this tool its free and very user friendly! Teachers and students can make Prezi's! I like creating Prezi's on the website and then presenting from the iPad app. The website has lots of great templates to where the app only has a blank canvas. The website also has the path option which allows you to put the presentation in some kind of order, to where the app doesn't have that feature. 

Once you have created your Prezi you have different options for presenting.  You can present online, download, save a copy, or share. 

Another feature I like is the Explore feature you can search a specific topic and see what others have created in Prezi on that topic. You can either view it, share it, or reuse it (make a copy for yourself which allows you to edit and make it your own yet still giving credit to the original owner!).

Below you will see a Prezi I have embedded into my Blog. This is just a blank canvas Prezi in which I added a path make it more like a presentation. This was something I created when talking about my position at a school board meeting.

Technology Integration Matrix

With being a Technology Integrated Specialist, I have been guiding the teachers through this process. I would put myself in the Infusion/Transformation stage. Right now at Madison Grant I can help teachers move through this process with the transition to 1:1 of iPads.  I think making the matrix available for teachers in this corporation to see where they are on it would be interesting I think we would have a lot of teachers surprised at which stages they were at. 

My whole job is to help teachers improve their technology skills and in the end get to the Transformation stage. With the help of Professional Development times of specific tools, apps, and ideas I share with the teachers hopefully they will be closer to the Transformation stage as the next few months of school. 

Blended/Online Learning VS "Brick and Mortar"

When you say brick and mortar  you typically think of traditional  instruction. When I think of it I think of the one room school like back in the day you read and then take a test. The most traditional type of classroom. Even as a kid who grew up in times of technology most of my classrooms were the traditional brick and mortar type. As I went to high school a few classes were blended learning type but still most were brick and mortar. Now as for college that's when I really got exposed to blended/online learning environment. As a freshman in college I remember taking my first class and going exactly the speed of the class, but as I took more online classes the better I was at taking them. Meaning I knew what to expect and how to work the systems we were using.

Online courses open a whole new perspective on learning and teaching. Teaching an online course is a whole new framework of teaching. While as taking an online/blended learning class it is also a whole new framework and dynamic of learning. For me I had 12 years of traditional instruction and then to be put in an online class I didn't even know where to begin. In online/blended instruction there is so much freedom typically there are deadlines but you can complete the work at your own pace! Thats what I liked so much if I understood something I can go right to the next thing where as if you were in a traditional classroom you would have to wait for the rest of the class to understand it.

The only thing that I would run into was internet accessibility some students could connect and others would only connect when they felt like it. If teachers are requiring students to do an assignment and some students dont have internet access you have to make accommodations for them. Like allowing them to stay after school, before school, public library and making sure you are communication with those students before the assignment is even assigned to give them time to figure out when works best for them to work on assignment.

Overall I have recently read an article about online learning and it said in 2009 more than 3 million K-12 students have taken on online class. With the increase in technology I can see that number expanding so fast. But we do have to consider the student learning styles and what works best for them.  Because  online/blended learning doesn't work for everyone.