When faced with deciding how to create my Vision of the Future project,  I immediately wished I could write an essay. I enjoy writing, researching, and find that my brain processes and conveys information best, when able to write my thoughts out on paper; however, I knew this project had to be technologically challenging for the individual, and with that in mind, I decided to to try a format I hadn’t used before -Prezi. I chose Prezi not only because I hadn’t previously experimented with it, but because a fellow colleague used it to present about the “new curriculum” in September. I thoroughly enjoyed his Prezi, and found it visually captivating and informative, but in a supportive way (he spoke a lot, and used Prezi and a supplement to his talk). Furthermore, I liked how many intermediate students were using Prezi in class, and I wanted knowledge on the program in the event that I might have to assist them.

Initially I really liked a few things about Prezi. For starters, I liked how to jumps from slide to slide, in a zoom in zoom out kinda of way. I drew my attention to the next slide, and I think is more engaging than a simple swipe/flash to the next slide. I liked how it gave you the option to very easily upload an image or a video from the internet or from youtube. This element was very straightforward and simple. Lastly, I liked the editing abilities -it was easy to create a new slide, edit a previous slide, and view your work as you went.As I drafted my rough ideas for each slide, I was quite please with the progress, user-friendliness, and overall appearance.

As my project progressed, and I began to add in fine details and development my ideas, I found Prezi to be somewhat uncreative and limiting. There was no option to customize a template, or to inserts ones own photo, as the entire backdrop of all the slides. I couldn’t edit a header out of any of the slides, and I couldn’t customize the amount of text/image space a slide had. I wished there were more templates to choose from, considering you couldn’t customize any. The biggest trouble shoot was trying to my each slide brief enough to fit the character maximum, yet get my point across. In my head, I knew that if I was presenting this Prezi at a staff meeting or the like, it was act as a supplement to my own words and explanations, but as a stand alone, I felt I really would have liked to have been able to flush at some of the slides in more detail. Lastly, I had trouble formatting a wordle, and collage I made, into the Prezi. Because I could not delete the header from each slide, the head blocked the information I created in the wordle. As a result I couldn’t include it. So in this way, I found Prezi to be limiting to creativity and incorporation of other technologies.

I think if given the opportunity to present this Prezi, it will serve as a supplemental element to a presentation, and in that way, it was successful. I hope that my fellow peers viewing this project will be able to understand each slide, without further explanation.

Since my last post about my “Vision of the Future” project, I have made some progress, and discovered some new apps and websites in my research, that will be useful for my project.

I’ve since narrowed the audience for my project down to elementary school teachers, as I’m focusing on fostering a love of reading in elementary school students. I hope that my Prezi will be something I can share as a resource to other teachers, who might not know how to utilize technology to foster reading engagement/enjoyment. My ideas are simple and my suggestions are manageable; I feel that my project will speak to those teachers who might feel intimidated and unsure of where to start, when it comes to incorporating technology into their classrooms.

I am feeling a little unsure of the medium I used to present my project. I chose Prezi partly because I hadn’t used it before and wanted to gain some experience using an app that I see many students using. Although it will be perfect for sharing with other staff members, perhaps at a staff meeting or professional development day, it does have its limiting factors. For example, I’ve noticed that I can’t change the template within each slide. I do have a few options of templates to choose from -text, text and picture/video, but I cannot customize slides to suit my individual needs. As a result I’m finding I have to be selective with what I include in each slide and there isn’t a lot of room for elaboration. I’m thinking a paper format for this project would enable me to explain and share more, but I realise a Prezi format will be much more conducive for sharing beyond this course. To get past this obstacle I’ve created more slides with fewer/narrower topics rather than my rough draft (which was done on paper), with had a lot on each slide/broader topics (I hope that makes sense).

I’ve tried to challenge myself and use different apps within Prezi. So far I’ve made a mind map and also a wordle. I feel a bit worried that others might have much more technologically difficult projects, in comparison to my own, but I am reminding myself it has to be innovative for the individual.

In working on this vision project I have noticed that I have learned a lot about technology and even better, I am excited to keeping trying and learning to do more.

Below is a picture of my Prezi in the making…

Sorry for the late post!

In reflecting on the past few weeks of inquiry, it is hard to pick one aspect as being most beneficial as a takeaway. I have found a lot of helpful and creative elements that I will take away with me from the course so far.

To start, I have found reading fellow classmates blogs and the practice of blogging myself very valuable. As silly as it may sound, I used to view blogging as a very intimidating activity and because I hadn’t read many blogs before (apart from some travel blogs of those touring around the world) I didn’t realize the value in not only writing blogs, but reading blogs. I didn’t realise they were just to share information as much as they are. I guess I assumed it was more of an online diary type tool. Because of the act of blogging, I’ve discovered many new apps, ideas and literature from my fellow classmates. Furthermore, I’m encouraged to start my own blog for the classroom, which is a task I see as manageable with my schedule and beneficial to my teaching practice. As well, the technology skills I’ve taken away from blogging are still very basic yet I feel as though I have learned a lot to do with linking, embedding videos, and the like.

Secondly, I found the inquiry about developing my own ICT skills helpful because it really made me consider what can I do, what am I willing to try to do and what will I actually do. I really liked how we were forced to answer what would we do after this course is over. Having to answer a question like makes me personally feel accountable that I uphold what I say I will continue to do. Likewise, I enjoyed learning about PLN’s. I think I learned the most in this inquiry from my classmates because I wasn’t very familiar with PLNs before this topic was brought about. Although I soon realized I had PLNs, it’s definitely something that I want to work towards developing and utilizing throughout my teaching career.

Students getting creative and collaborating -something I would like to do more of!

Lastly, I’m really glad that we were able to research into different libraries around the world in developing countries. Social responsibility is something I am passionate about and hope to include in my teaching as much as possible. It was really nice to see how technology intertwined with this subject and to read about all the great initiatives that are happening globally. Not only did it fill me with a lot of hope, it also made me really appreciate what we have in our school districts. It is sometimes easy in this day and age to wish our schools had this resource or that book, but when looking at what people around the world are making do with, it sure makes you grateful and inspired to get more creative with what you have.

Thank you classmates for sharing your great ideas, reflections and skills with me throughout our inquiry period of this class. Great job on your blogs so far!