One assignment in intro microbiology lab is for students to find a journal article and prepare a powerpoint presentation about the article to their class. Today, I was checking out how Google Slides and Prezi work, and I think Google Slides would be more helpful for my students.
Students have to find time outside of class to get together and prepare powerpoint slides, or each person sends their slides to one person in the group who then merges them together, which I feel is okay, but I find that some students don't spend the time to make sure all the slides run smoothly as one continuous presentation. They don't re-group to discuss. Using Google Slides would allow them to add and edit slides on their own time and add comments, similar to our class wiki. It would encourage collaborative work.
Also, I really like the idea of Prezi - using more visuals to tell a story, but I think it will be more challenging to use when presenting data from scientific journal article, although I'd like to see what students could come up with. Has anyone in science classes used Prezi?
I've only seen Prezi used once for a psychology presentation. While it was interesting (as all new technologies are), all the zooming in and out could easily get tiresome after a while, especially if there isn't any meaningful organization to the movement in the presentation.
ReplyDeleteI have not actually used Prezi but I think it shows potential for introductory biological concepts, like Cell Cycle and Evolution. It would get you the ability to insert small video clips as well as information and history with the one way track of powerpoint
ReplyDeleteI would be very interested to hear what your students think about using Google Slides for collaborative presentations. It makes much more sense than the method they are using now.
ReplyDeleteHave you looked at the Prezi site? They have a number of sample presentations, including science-related topics. See http://prezi.com/explore/science-and-environment/.
Ooh I didn't see these science Prezi's! Thanks, Sherry! I watched some tutorials on building a Prezi presentation, and I just didn't know if it could be used for presenting journal articles, which are kind of dry. Maybe I will experiment with it, and make an example using Prezi. I do like Dave's idea for using it for biological concepts. Thanks!
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