My Take
Prezi benefits are twofold, students and teachers do respond to the "pizzazz" Prezi can offer when sharing information and Prezi is a digital tool that can be used to fulfill the Common Core State Standard ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.5. I happy to report that I had no technical difficulties; I have had experience with the school network not playing nice with digital tools. I included a video I made & a video from Youtube without any glitches. I was able to transfer a PowerPoint into a Prezi but it did take some tweaking. Prezi give students the opportunity to create information in an exciting dynamic and polished presentation. It is my philosophy that school librarians need to be teaching how to incorporate Web 2.0 technologies into the classroom. Prezi is terrific example of a Web 2.0 technology that support the Common Core Content Standards.
How I Use It
I am a School Library Media Specialist and I have used Prezi for my presentations and taught students and teachers how to use it for their presentations. It is a dynamic way to present information. In fact, I created a Prezi to introduce Digital Passport to a self-contained classroom: http://prezi.com/o8d1alvo0knf/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex… My approach to school librarianship is to embed lessons within a classroom assignment. For example, an 8th grade teacher gave her students an assignment that required her students to give a presentation on academic/college vocabulary. I gave a mini lesson on how to create a Prezi and circulated the room and provided assistance if needed. The how-to videos were very helpful. The templates are an easy way to give your presentation a polished look. It took me some time to wrap my head around the edit path feature. I had to fight the PowerPoint mindset of linear presentation of information. Not all students in this lesson choose to use Prezi, but those that did took to it and gave me positive feedback. The underpinnings of Prezi lesson is the following Common Core Content Standard :
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.